High-ranking officials said yesterday that Premier Tang Fei (
"Premier Tang says he absolutely respects the Legislative Yuan's decisions, including interpellation procedures," said Vice Premier Yu Shyi-kun.
"However, we earnestly request the Legislative Yuan to consider the `human element' and to allow Tang more time to recover [from recent surgery]," Yu said.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES.
Representing the Cabinet, Minister Without Portfolio Chang Yu-hui (
Tang attended the new Cabinet's first official meeting yesterday, which passed a proposal to reorganize the 921 post-quake reconstruction committee into a formal department of the government.
In addition, the Cabinet meeting also approved the "Anti-black gold center" proposal for central, northern and southern Taiwan, "which will be formed as task forces to investigate some particular or important cases," said Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南).
Tang appeared in good physical condition, smiling to media while having his lunch with other Cabinet members and said that he was looking forward to working with the Cabinet.
However, he returned to the Veterans General Hospital after the meeting and did not participate personally in the welcoming tea party. Tang delivered a video recorded speech to Cabinet members and media.
The new premier underwent surgery April 15 to remove a benign tumor from his chest. The wound later became infected, forcing him to return to hospital on May 3.
Tang's doctor suggested that the premier's condition would only permit him to stay in his office for half a day every other day until late June.
His doctor said Tang should not spend more than eight hours per day at the Legislative Yuan to accept an interpellation session by lawmakers before July.
The KMT legislative caucus came out on Tuesday urging Tang to resign immediately because, they said, the premier was physically incapable of facing the challenge of political affairs.
"Let Tang go and do not murder him," KMT lawmaker Chen Chin-pao (
Some KMT lawmakers, however, have expressed support for giving Tang one month to recuperate before assuming his full duties, as the DPP, the New Party and the PFP caucuses have done.
Negotiations between parties' legislative caucuses will decide on May 29 how the interpellation will be conducted and when it will begin.
Director of the Government Information Office Chung Chin (
"But, if we want the Premier to take on more duties, it would be best to first give him a couple of days to recover," Chung said.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest foundry service provider, yesterday said that global semiconductor revenue is projected to hit US$1.5 trillion in 2030, after the figure exceeds US$1 trillion this year, as artificial intelligence (AI) demand boosts consumption of token and compute power. “We are still at the beginning of the AI revolution, but we already see a significant impact across the whole semiconductor ecosystem,” TSMC deputy cochief operating officer Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “It is fair to say that in the past decade, smartphones and other mobile devices were
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