The Taiwan Post Co (台灣郵政) said yesterday it would soon change its name back to Chunghwa Post (中華郵政), a measure expected to cost NT$8 million (US$260,000).
The company changed its name from Chunghwa Post to Taiwan Post in February last year at a cost of around NT$12 million.
The move at the time upset the Chunghwa Postal Workers’ Union, which staged a protest outside the company’s headquarters.
The second name change was passed unanimously at a board meeting yesterday and won praise from the workers’ union.
Taiwan Post chairman Wu Min-yu (吳民佑) said 30 post offices countrywide would need to have signs replaced, which would be completed by Monday.
Wu said the name change was being carried out in response to a resolution passed by the legislature in April. The resolution said the company had not completed the required legal procedures to change its name to Taiwan Post and said it must change its name again within six months.
Wu said customers with Taiwan Post savings accounts would still be able to use account books with “Taiwan Post” printed on the cover. Postage stamps issued by the Taiwan Post will also still be valid.
“The interests of our customers remained unchanged,” he said.
Chunghwa Post vice president Su Tien-fu (蘇添富) said NT$8 million was only an estimate for the cost of the name change.
The bottom line may add up to less than that, Su said.
“When we took the Chunghwa Post signs and billboards down last year, we put them in our storage just in case we might need them again,” Su said. “And to save all the trouble, we simply put ‘Taiwan Post’ stickers on top of the name ‘Chunghwa Post’” on smaller signs such as at ATMs.
“Now, we only need to wash those billboards and tear off those stickers,” he said.
The meeting yesterday also confirmed the reappointment of former board member Liu Cheng-chi (劉政池).
Liu was removed from the board by Vice Minister of Transportation and Communications Ho Nuan-hsuen (何煖軒) for allegedly leaking information to the press. Ho later also filed slander charges against Liu, accusing him of seeking to damage the company’s reputation by divulging negative information.
Wu dismissed speculation that Liu had been reappointed because of pressure from Liu’s brother, Miaoli County Commissioner and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member Liu Cheng-hung (劉政鴻). Liu Cheng-chi was appointed to the board to “help the company’s business,” Wu said.
But anonymous postal workers upset by the decision wrote in a letter distributed to reporters: “What makes Liu so special that he should be employed again and again by the board? ... There are about 5,000 people in this company who are experts in the postal business. Can they all be appointed too?”
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
RSS