Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) said the party is stepping up efforts to attract young talent and streamline itself.
King has invited headhunters to help the party recruit young blood interested in entering politics with the chance of representing the party in local elections.
“The restructuring of manpower in local branches doesn’t mean that we are distancing ourselves from local factions. Establishing a transparent system in cultivating and promoting talent is our goal,” he said.
King pledged to sell the Central Investment Co by June 30 to resolve issues involving contentious assets and to turn the party into a “transformer” during elections soon after he took over as the party’s secretary-general.
The KMT would start a new streamlining process after the Central Investment Co sale goes through to ease its financial burden. Annual personnel and miscellaneous expenses were about NT$1.5 billion (US$46 million).
King said the KMT would not just cultivate a future generation whose families have political backgrounds. Young talents with a passion for public affairs and politics are welcome to join the party, he said.
Ryan Wu (吳睿穎), former chief operating officer of 1111 Job Bank, who was invited by King to recruit new blood, said he would help streamline the KMT and find young talent to infuse energy into the hundred-year-old party.
Wu said he would visit local branches with King to gain a deeper understanding of them and the KMT’s local personnel systems to establish a transparent promotion system.
King refused to confirm whether or not the party will have a layoff around the Lunar New Year holidays, but said the party will give a two week year-end bonus to party staff.
In other news, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), in his capacity as KMT chairman, will attend the International Democrat Union (IDU) meeting in Taipei tomorrow, seeking to enhance communication with more than 60 politicians from 28 nations.
The IDU is a cross-nation organization formed in 1983 by a working association of more than 80 conservative, center and center right parties.
The KMT joined the IDU in 1994 and will host this year’s meeting in Taipei through Tuesday. The KMT said Ma would attend tomorrow’s opening ceremony and make a speech at the event. Former prime minister of Australia John Howard will also attend the two-day meeting as the IDU’s chairman.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
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