President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) nominee for Examination Yuan president, John Kuan (關中), yesterday vowed to refrain from participating in events held by political parties if his nomination were approved by the legislature.
During a question-and-answer session with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) in the legislature, Kuan signed an agreement provided by Yang promising to maintain impartiality if he became Examination Yuan president.
The agreement states: “I hereby promise to maintain neutrality during my term as president of the Examination Yuan. [I] will immediately withdraw from all political activities in a bid to ensure the impartiality of the Examination Yuan.”
However, he added that signing the agreement did not mean he would quit his KMT membership.
Kuan, 68, has served as vice president of the Examination Yuan. He resigned as KMT vice chairman after being informed of his nomination for the government branch’s top job.
He brushed aside claims that his position was a reward for his campaign efforts during the presidential election.
The Legislative Yuan yesterday began a review of the president’s nomination of Kuan, Chern Jinn-lih (陳進利) as vice president of the Control Yuan and three other members of the Control Yuan.
The legislature is scheduled to vote on the five nominees tomorrow.
The legislature has already approved Ma’s nomination of Wang Chien-shien as president of the Control Yuan and Wu Chin-lin (伍錦霖) as vice president of the Examination Yuan.
The legislature has also approved 24 of the 27 nominated Control Yuan members, as well as all 19 Examination Yuan nominees.
Kuan said yesterday that he would do his best to push through the pending draft public official standards bill, draft administrative officers law and draft public officials impartiality bill to establish a better administrative system if his nomination were approved.
He also defended the government’s plans to give recognition to Chinese academic credentials.
“President Ma is concerned that there are some 7,000 Taiwanese students studying in China. If we don’t recognize their degrees from schools in China, they will not be able to participate in any of our national examinations. This would be a big loss for us,” Kuan said.
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
RSS