Taiwan is set to open a new culture ministry and a revamped Aviation Safety Council on Sunday, while the Government Information Office (GIO) will be shut down permanently in the latest phase of a campaign designed to overhaul government structures.
On Jan. 1, the Executive Yuan began an organizational restructuring process that aims to cut the number of Cabinet-level agencies from 37 to 29, leaving 14 ministries, eight councils, three independent commissions and four other agencies, including the National Palace Museum and the central bank.
The ministry of culture will be created through an upgrade of the Council for Cultural Affairs and the GIO, which was established in 1947 to publicize the nation at home and abroad and to regulate the local media and film industries.
The culture ministry will take over the GIO’s operations in the broadcasting, publishing and film industry sectors, said Sung Yu-hsieh (宋餘俠), deputy minister of the Research Development and Evaluation Commission, which has spearheaded the government overhaul. Other GIO services will be taken over by the Executive Yuan and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he said.
Sung added that the new culture ministry was set to begin operations on a trial basis yesterday to see what improvements were needed.
Since assuming office in May 2008, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has promoted the streamlining of government operations and introduced an amendment to the Organic Act of the Executive Yuan (行政院組織法) in January 2010, which paved the way for the reform process.
Meanwhile, sources confirmed yesterday that Hu Yu-wei (胡幼偉), a professor at the Graduate Institute of Mass Communication at National Taiwan Normal University, would be appointed spokesperson of the Executive Yuan on Sunday after the GIO ceases to exist.
Hu was confirmed as the first-term spokesperson of the Executive Yuan, a role that has been played by the head of the GIO since it was established 65 years ago, except when the office was dissolved between 1949 and 1954.
GIO Minister Philip Yang (楊永明), who left the faculty of National Taiwan University in May last year, will be transferred to the National Security Council, for which he was an adviser before joining the university in May 2010. He will serve as deputy secretary-general of the council.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan
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
ANNUAL EVENT: Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in Daan Park, with an event zone operating from 10am to 6pm This year’s Taipei Floral Picnic is to be held at Daan Park today and tomorrow, featuring an exclusive Pokemon Go event, a themed food market, a coffee rave picnic area and stage performances, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said yesterday. Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in the park as attractions, with an exclusive event zone operating from 10am to 6pm, it said. Participants who complete designated tasks on-site would have a chance to receive limited-edition souvenirs, it added. People could also try the newly launched game Pokemon Pokopia in the trial area, the department said. Three PokeStops are
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
RSS