Premier-designate William Lai (賴清德) has named Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (台灣證交所) chairman Shih Jun-ji (施俊吉) as the next vice premier and Democratic Progressive Party Deputy Secretary-General Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) as the next Cabinet secretary-general, the Executive Yuan said yesterday.
All incumbent ministers without portfolio will stay on, except for Chen Tain-jy (陳添枝), who serves concurrently as National Development Council minister, Cabinet spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said.
Cabinet Secretary-General Chen Mei-ling (陳美伶) is to take over both positions from Chen Tain-jy, said Hsu, who confirmed that he would stay on as Cabinet spokesman.
Photo: CNA
Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) is to become chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission, Hsu said.
Responding to criticism that Koo does not have a financial background, Hsu said that Koo, as a lawyer, was trained in financial law and has the legal expertise required in overseeing financial bodies.
Former FSC chairman Sean Chen and former minister of finance Yen Ching-chang (顏慶章) were also legal experts before they became financial chiefs, so Koo’s appointment should be acceptable, Hsu said.
Photo: CNA
All other appointments are to be announced today after Lai bids farewell to the Tainan City Government and council, Hsu said.
The new Cabinet is to be sworn in on Friday and an extraordinary Executive Yuan meeting is to be convened immediately, he said.
“Government management is a succession of works, and there are different missions in each stage. I will continue the policies unfinished by Premier Lin Chuan (林全) and employ the pragmatic ‘Tainan spirit’ to lead a new way,” Hsu quoted Lai as saying.
Photo: Lee Hsin-fang, Taipei Times
CIVIL DEFENSE: More reservists in alternative service would help establish a sound civil defense system for use in wartime and during natural disasters, Kuma Academy’s CEO said While a total of 120,000 reservists are expected to be called up for alternative reserve drills this year, compared with the 6,505 drilled last year, the number has been revised to 58,000 due to a postponed training date, Deputy Minster of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) said. In principle, the ministry still aims to call up 120,000 reservists for alternative reserve drills next year, he said, but the actual number would not be decided later until after this year’s evaluation. The increase follows a Legislative Yuan request that the Ministry of the Interior address low recruitment rates, which it made while reviewing
WARNING: China has stepped up harassment of foreign vessels after its new regulation took effect last month, an official said, citing an incident in the Diaoyutai Islands The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday linked China’s seizure of a Taiwanese fishing vessel illegally operating in its territorial waters to Beijing’s new regulation authorizing the China Coast Guard to seize boats in waters it claims. Chinese officials boarded and then seized a Taiwanese fishing vessel operating near China’s coast close to Kinmen County late on Tuesday and took it to a Chinese port, the CGA said. The Penghu-registered squid fishing vessel Da Jin Man No. 88 (大進滿88) was boarded and seized by China Coast Guard east-northeast of Liaoluo Bay (料羅灣), 17.5 nautical miles (32.4km) from Taiwan’s restricted waters off Kinmen,
As eight basketball-playing international students appealed to the Taiwanese basketball industry after they were excluded from the draft of an upcoming new league merging the P.League+ and the T1 League, the new league’s preparatory committee spokesperson Chang Shu-jen (張樹人) yesterday said the committee would tomorrow discuss the supplementary measures and whether the international students can join the draft. The students on Tuesday called for support on their right to play in the upcoming new league, after a merger involving the two leagues impacted their eligibility for the draft. The international players from the University Basketball Association (UBA), led by first pick prospect
Some foreign companies are considering moving Taiwanese employees out of China after Beijing said it could impose the death penalty on “die-hard” Taiwanese independence advocates, four people familiar with the matter said. The new guidelines have caused some Taiwanese expatriates and foreign multinationals operating in China to scramble to assess their legal risks and exposure, said the people, who include a lawyer and two executives with direct knowledge of the discussions. “Several companies have come to us to assess the risks to their personnel,” said the lawyer, James Zimmerman, a Beijing-based partner at the Perkins Coie law firm. He declined to identify