Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC) Minister Chu Chin-peng (朱景鵬) has offered to resign amid speculation that he was frustrated over slow progress on legislative review of bills regarding government restructuring.
Chu downplayed the speculation in a telephone interview, saying he has long planned to return to academia in January next year.
Chu said he had expressed his intention to resign to Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) earlier this year when President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) formed the Cabinet ahead of his May 20 inauguration for a second term, but was told to stay on until the end of this year.
“I decided to leave earlier to give my successor more time to resolve remaining issues concerning government restructuring in the next legislative session,” Chu said.
Chu said he submitted his resignation letter to Chen after the legislative session ended on Friday. It has not been approved yet.
Several controversial issues left the first session of the eighth legislature mired in confrontation so that during the four-month-long session, lawmakers completed reviews of only 11 pieces of legislation, two audits of final accounts, an internal legislative regulation and the credentials of three Examination Yuan members.
Under the government’s plan to streamline the Executive Yuan from 37 agencies to 29 between January this year and Dec. 31, 2014, bills governing the structure of 15 agencies were approved by the seventh legislature.
The commission initially wanted to push through the remaining 85 amendments governing structures of 14 other agencies in the recent session, but the bills were held up by other issues.
Research, Development and Evaluation Commission Deputy Minister Sung Yu-hsieh (宋餘俠) said the commission wanted the remaining bills to pass by the end of this year to allow enough time to prepare the 14 new agencies.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported
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