Three high-ranking financial and economic Cabinet officials were appointed yesterday while Minister without Portfolio Arthur Iap (葉國興), who caused much uproar and controversy while heading the Government Inform-ation Office (GIO), will become the Cabinet secretary-general once the Cabinet reshuffle has been finalized, Premier Yu Shy-kun announced yesterday.
The three financial and economic officials are Ho Mei-yueh (
Other Cabinet officials who will remain include the head of the Environmental Protection Administration Chang Juu-en (張祖恩), Atomic Energy Council Chairman Ouyang Min-shen (歐陽敏盛), Minister without Portfolio Lin Sheng-feng (林盛豐), Minister without Portfolio Kuo Yao-chi (郭瑤琪) and Minister without Portfolio Hsu Chih-hsiung (許志雄).
Yu made the announcement yesterday morning after presiding over the swearing-in ceremony of Minister of the Interior Su Jia-chyuan (
Su, Chen and Lee will resign on May 12 when Yu leads all Cabinet officials to resign en masse, in accordance with constitutional precedence.
Yu said yesterday that the search for financial and economic Cabinet officials frustrated him.
"I've inquired about the availability of several possible candidates recommended by industrial leaders over the past few days, but none of them were interested," Yu said, adding that the list included Acer Inc Chairman and CEO Stan Shih (施振榮).
Shih declined the offer, citing health reasons. Nevertheless, he offered to provide advice if asked, Yu said. Others cited the "revolving door" policy of civil servants or their reluctance to answer to the lawmaking body as reasons for declining the government positions.
Outgoing Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (
"Some outstanding financial or economic experts are just not good at promoting themselves or don't feel comfortable interacting with lawmakers who are known for their vitriolic criticism of government officials," he said.
"It's an interesting phenomenon that the definition of a good political functionary here in Taiwan consists of 90 percent grandstanding and 10 percent hard-work and expertise," he said.
Iap, 52, was appointed minister without portfolio in July last year, in charge of reviewing media-related projects. Citing health reasons, Iap resigned in June last year.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
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