The Cabinet line-up remained virtually unchanged ahead of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) inauguration for his second term today.
The Presidential Office yesterday announced its new Cabinet team, which is led by Premier Sean Chen
Chen was designated by Ma to succeed Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) as premier in early February following the Ma-Wu ticket’s election in January.
Despite falling approval ratings for Ma and the Chen Cabinet, alongside rising calls for a Cabinet reshuffle, virtually all former Cabinet members have kept their previous positions in office.
All minister-level members were reappointed, with the exception of minister without portfolio Chang Chin-fu (張進福), who is to return to academia.
Chang’s duties, which cover policy coordination on issues related to energy (including nuclear power), environmental protection, digital convergence, transportation and communications, among others, has been left unfilled for the time being.
The new Ministry of Culture, which was upgraded from the Council of Cultural Affairs, officially begins operations today and is to be led by Lung Ying-tai (龍應台).
Hu Yu-wei (胡幼偉), a professor at the Graduate Institute of Mass Communication at National Taiwan Normal University, was appointed as spokesperson of the Executive Yuan, leading the new Office of Information Services.
Shaw Yu-ming (邵玉銘), chairman of the Coordination Council of North American Affairs — counterpart of the American Institute in Taiwan — will be replaced by David Lee (李大維), now the nation’s representative to Canada.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not announced who is to succeed Lee.
Deputy ministers of the Council of Economic Planning and Development San Gee (單驥) and Hu Chung-ying (胡仲英) both left the Cabinet. Meanwhile, Wu Ming-chi (吳明機), director of the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Department of Industrial Technology, has been appointed vice minister of the council.
Chang Yun-cheng (張雲程) and Lin Chin-tien (林金田), who were vice ministers of the Council of Culture, were appointed vice ministers of the Ministry of Culture. Mou Chung-yuan (牟中原), a professor of chemistry at National Taiwan University, and Henry Sun (孫以瀚), a researcher at the Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, were appointed as deputy ministers of the National Science Council, replacing Chen Cheng-hong (陳正宏) and Chang Ching-fong (張清風).
Chen Wen-te (陳文德), a councilor at the Council of Agriculture, was promoted to deputy minister of the council, replacing Huang Yu-tsai (黃有才). Deputy minister of the Public Construction Commission Wu Kuo-an (吳國安) was replaced by Chen Chwen-jing (陳純敬), a senior consultant from the private sector.
Uya Pawan (洪良全), director of the Department of Economic and Public Construction of the Council of Indigenous Peoples, succeeds Xia Jin-long (夏錦龍) as deputy minister.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is
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