Vice Premier-designate Lin Hsin-yi (
Lin expressed his thanks to ministry staff but appeared to try and shrug off blame for the country's worst recession in decades by saying the government can't wait for a recession before trying to resolve its problems.
"For 15 years economic growth was on average over 6 percent, so everybody had that secure feeling that growth was always certain, but looming in the background was recession," Lin said.
"During growth periods, when the economy's at its strongest, that's the best time to prepare for hard times. If you wait until a recession [starts] it's too late," said Lin, who admitted that his distinctive thick, black eyebrows had sprung a few grey hairs during his term as economics minister.
Lin's suggestion that the current economic problems were overlooked in the past could be interpreted as shifting some of the blame onto the previous Kuomintang government, which ruled Taiwan for over 55-years of mostly spectacular economic performance.
Since the first democratic handover of power in March 2000, the KMT-led opposition has attempted to blame the country's economic ills on the apparent inability of the government of Chen Shui-bian's (
Analysts, however, have generally placed the lion's share of the blame on the downturn of the global economy -- particularly in the technology sector -- and hardcore, often underlying problems left over from the previous KMT-run government.
Lin -- who used to be a KMT member -- incurred the wrath of his former political party by siding with the DPP and recommending that the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (
The nuclear power plant issue stirred massive political conflict between the opposition and the government and eventually led to a backdown of the executive and the expulsion of Lin from the KMT.
But observers note that his apparent display of loyalty to DPP government may have earned him the promotion to vice premier.
In his farewell speech, Lin chose to focus on discussing government efficiency. He said the ministry has managed to reduce processing time for company applications to set up operations in industrial parks by 53 percent.
"By using our heads we have managed to cut costs in state-run enterprises and save NT$2.6 billion in interest expenses and a further NT$2 billion in unreasonable overtime expenditure," he said.
In assuming his new concurrent posts of vice premier and chairman of the Council for Economic Planning and Development, Lin said his major tasks would be the same as those that made him agree to serve in the government.
"I feel that our industries' ability to transform and overall competitiveness are facing major problems. This is what I felt around two years ago ... that hasn't changed," he said.
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