Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) confirmed yesterday that Grand Hotel chairman Chang Shuo-lao (張學勞) had tendered his resignation on Feb. 23, which has preliminarily been approved by Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國).
At a separate setting yesterday, Mao told reporters Chang tendered his resignation because he was upset by an allegation by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) that he embezzled public funds during his tenure as Taiwan Visitors Association chairman.
Mao said Chang insisted on resigning despite lack of evidence.
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) has said the government would look into the allegation.
Meanwhile, the Taiwan Visitors Association issued a statement yesterday dismissing Yeh’s claim.
The Mega Bank account that Yeh referred to was owned by the association and was not Chang’s personal account, the association said.
Association chairman Chang assisted the government in developing the market for the cross-strait tourism, the association said. He paid for his travel expenses on business trips as well, the association said.
In his resignation letter Chang said he had worked hard to turn the Grand Hotel in Taipei into a profitable entity.
ADDIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei City Reserve Command yesterday initiated its first-ever 14-day recall of some of the city’s civilian service reservists, who are to undergo additional training on top of refresher courses. The command said that it rented sites in Neihu District (內湖), including the Taipei Tennis Center, for the duration of the camp to optimize tactical positioning and accommodate the size of the battalion of reservists. A battalion is made up of four companies of more than 200 reservists each, it said. Aside from shooting drills at a range in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), the remainder of the training would be at
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