Premier Yu Shyi-kun appointed 12 more Cabinet officials yesterday, adding to its ranks a new position of spokesperson.
Chuang Suo-hang (
National Security Council member Yeh Kuo-hsin (葉國興) will head the Government Information Office as its director-general, while Tchen Yu-chiou (陳郁秀), chairwoman of the Council for Cultural Affairs, and Lin Chuan (林全), head of the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, will retain their posts.
Also staying at their posts are Lin Chia-cheng (
Huang Jung-tsun (
Vice Minister of the Interior Lee Yi-yang (
Both Chen Chi-nan (
The appointments will conclude today with the appointments for the ministers of transportation, finance and economic affairs.
As Yu has pledged to reserve one quarter of the Cabinet posts for women, Kuo Yao-chi (
Kuo, however, refused to comment on the speculation yesterday.
The new Cabinet officials are scheduled to be sworn in on Feb. 1, according to sources at the Executive Yuan.
Facing media questions about the legality of the controversial post of Cabinet spokesperson, Yu said that the position was created to allow the GIO's director-general to resume a solely administrative function.
"No law prohibits any government agency from establishing a spokesperson's position," Yu said. "There's no doubt that the Executive Yuan is entitled to have such a post as well."
Yu, however, failed to clearly differentiate the responsibilities of the two jobs, claiming that it was hard to explain in such a short period of time.
Chuang dismissed suggestions that his role will overlap with that of the GIO director-general, saying that they would work as a team.
"I won't be premier's make-up artist, as this role was before, but rather his fax machine," Chuang said. "I'll try my best to explain the Cabinet's policies to the media, and to work with the media in a friendly relationship."
Although the KMT's Huang, Yeh, and Chuang have been labeled as members of former president Lee Teng-hui's (
Yu is expected to appoint the new finance and economic affairs ministers today.
Christine Tseng (
Benny Hu (
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