As of yesterday afternoon, much of the new Cabinet consisted of familiar faces, with six members set to remain in their posts and others being filled by incumbent deputy ministers or ministers without portfolio, sources said.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) on Thursday led the Cabinet’s mass resignation ahead of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) second-term inauguration on Wednesday next week, which is when the new Cabinet is to take office.
Sources said that Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇), Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) and Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) are among the members staying for another term.
Hsu and Lin were asked to remain because of their performance over the past 16 months, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Pan would remain because of his work in implementing the new curriculum in September last year, sources said.
Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津), Minister of Finance Su Jain-rong (蘇建榮) and Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Minister Chu Tzer-ming (朱澤民) are also expected to remain, they said.
Su has approved the resignation of Minister of Culture Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), sources said, adding that Hakka Affairs Council Minister Lee Yung-de (李永得) would fill the post.
Lee, who headed the Hakka Affairs Council from 2005 to 2008 and 2016 to this year, has long cultivated cultural and arts circles, leading Su to ask him to succeed Cheng, sources said.
Yang Chang-chen (楊長鎮) is to assume Lee’s post, they added.
Minister Without Portfolio Wu Tsung-tsong (吳政忠) is to take over as minister of Science and Technology from Chen Liang-gee (陳良基), sources said.
Wu, who served as the chairman of the Industrial Technology Research Institute, was a technology policy adviser to Tsai during her 2016 and 2020 presidential election campaigns.
Financial Supervisory Commission Vice Chairman Huang Tien-mu (黃天牧) is to replace Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄), who has been tipped for a national security or intelligence post, sources said.
Minister Without Portfolio Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) is to replace National Development Council Minister Chen Mei-ling (陳美伶), they added.
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
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