Council of Labor Affairs Minister Pan Shih-wei (潘世偉) is to become head of the soon-to-be formed Ministry of Labor Affairs, the Executive Yuan announced yesterday.
In line with a government reorganization plan, the council will be upgraded to a ministry on Monday.
Pan, 58, holds a doctorate in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University in the US and is an academic-turned-government official.
Photo: CNA
He wrote the labor policy for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) ticket of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and former vice president Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) in the 2008 presidential election and later became deputy minister of the labor affairs council.
Pan took over his current post on Sept. 28, 2012, when Jennifer Wang (王如玄) resigned after an uproar over her proposal to raise the minimum wage.
He is planning to push for an occupational injury insurance act, a labor education act and a dispatch workers protection act this year.
In other Cabinet news, the Executive Yuan on Tuesday said that Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Liang Kuo-hsin (梁國新) has been named an adviser to the Cabinet.
The Cabinet will take advantage of Liang’s expertise in negotiations on trade pacts as the nation tries to join regional economic blocs, especially the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership and the ASEAN-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
The appointment came after Liang, 63, said he wanted to leave his job for health reasons, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said.
Liang will be able to continue making great contributions to the nation while still working for the government, the Executive Yuan said.
At the ministry, Liang was in charge of Taiwan’s talks to sign the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement with China, an investment protection agreement with Japan and an economic cooperation agreement with New Zealand.
He had previously served as the ministry’s administrative deputy minister, chief of staff to the vice president’s office, head of the economic division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US and deputy director of the ministry’s Bureau of Foreign Trade.
Administrative Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Woody Duh (杜紫軍) will replace Liang, the Executive Yuan said.
Duh, 55, has held several important positions in ministry agencies, including as directors of the Industrial Development Bureau and the Department of Industrial Technology, and head of the Department of Commerce.
Industrial Development Bureau Director Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津), 63, is to take over Duh’s position.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS