Newspaperman joining diplomats in foreign affairs

A former editor-in-chief of an English-language daily newspaper in Taiwan will join three seasoned diplomats today to be sworn into their new posts either overseas or at the foreign ministry.

Rex Wang (王世榕), former editor-in-chief of the Taiwan News, will become the de facto ambassador to Switzerland this afternoon following a ceremony at the foreign ministry.

Wang, former executive director of the Asia Foundation, majored in law at the National Taiwan University before gaining his master's degree in political science from National Chengchi University. He completed his graduate studies in labor studies in Brussels.

Wang has vowed to improve ties between Switzerland and Taiwan once he takes up his new post in Bern.

Wang was unable to comment on his new post when contacted yesterday.

Three seasoned diplomats are also slated to be sworn in for their respective new posts during the ceremony this afternoon.

Victor Chin (秦日新), former head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vancouver, will become the director general of the foreign ministry's Department for North American Affairs.

Lo Yu-chung (羅由中), former deputy director general of the ministry's Bureau of Consular Affairs, is to succeed Chin as the head of the Taipei representative office in Vancouver.

Joseph Kuo (郭永樑), former deputy director general of the ministry's Department of Central and Southern American Affairs, will become the deputy representative at Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Venezuela.

Meanwhile, DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) took part in the three-day "Strengthening Indonesian Political Parties Conference" in Jakarta yesterday, according to a press release.

Hsiao is scheduled to give a talk on "Political Parties in a Democracy" this morning, while Shaw Yu-ming (邵玉銘), chairman of the Central News Daily, gave a presentation on political party platform development yesterday, according to the agenda.

Shaw was the former deputy secretary-general of the KMT.

The international conference saw the gathering of political party leaders and scholars from the region, as well as parliamentarians from the Philippines, Taiwan, Mongolia and Malaysia.

The swearing in for the four positions comes three days after Premier Yu Shyi-kun told an inter-governmental meeting entitled "Task Force on Foreign Affairs" that he planned to increase the proportion of high-ranking officials with expertise in areas other than foreign affairs to lead Taiwan's representative offices abroad.

On Tuesday, the Cabinet's spokesman said that people should not take the premier's comments as referring to only staff with expertise in trade and economics, saying that Yu was talking about people with experience "across the board."