Premier Yu Shyi-kun yesterday outlined the qualifications for a new chief of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) after accepting EPA Administrator Hau Lung-pin's (
"I hope to pick a thoughtful, capable and experienced person to replace Administrator Hau to be the head of the Environmental Protection Administration," Yu said while attending the inauguration ceremony of a new highway linking the northeastern county of Ilan to other parts of Taiwan.
Praising Hau as an outstanding leader, Yu said he needed to find an equally qualified person to assume the post left vacant by Hau.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
"The new environmental chief must have contributed to Taiwan's environmental protection drive in the past years and have experience, ideas and the capability to carry out the government's environmental protection policies as well as relevant projects," Yu said.
He added that it therefore would take a few more days for him to make a final decision.
EPA Deputy Administrator Chang Chu-an (張祖恩) was appointed as acting administrator starting tomorrow, Hau's first day away from the job.
But Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chao Yung-ching (趙永清) is viewed by many mediaditsobservers as being the most likely candidate to take over the EPA's top post.
Chao has been active in championing local environmental protection programs for many years. He was also a big advocate of using referendums as a means to form policy -- a area of friction between Hau and his party's agenda.
But Chao denies ever having been contacted by the Presidential Office or the Cabinet on the matter.
Minister without Portfolio Yeh Jiunn-rong (
"The premier shall make his decision in a comprehensive manner. It is hard to say right now whether any of the possible candidates identified by the media or the public have been crossed off the premier's wish list," he said.
"This is not to say that anyone had been surely targeted as the favored person to succeed the EPA administrator," Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS