Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC) Minister Chu Chin-peng (朱景鵬) has offered to resign amid speculation that he was frustrated over slow progress on legislative review of bills regarding government restructuring.
Chu downplayed the speculation in a telephone interview, saying he has long planned to return to academia in January next year.
Chu said he had expressed his intention to resign to Premier Sean Chen (陳冲) earlier this year when President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) formed the Cabinet ahead of his May 20 inauguration for a second term, but was told to stay on until the end of this year.
“I decided to leave earlier to give my successor more time to resolve remaining issues concerning government restructuring in the next legislative session,” Chu said.
Chu said he submitted his resignation letter to Chen after the legislative session ended on Friday. It has not been approved yet.
Several controversial issues left the first session of the eighth legislature mired in confrontation so that during the four-month-long session, lawmakers completed reviews of only 11 pieces of legislation, two audits of final accounts, an internal legislative regulation and the credentials of three Examination Yuan members.
Under the government’s plan to streamline the Executive Yuan from 37 agencies to 29 between January this year and Dec. 31, 2014, bills governing the structure of 15 agencies were approved by the seventh legislature.
The commission initially wanted to push through the remaining 85 amendments governing structures of 14 other agencies in the recent session, but the bills were held up by other issues.
Research, Development and Evaluation Commission Deputy Minister Sung Yu-hsieh (宋餘俠) said the commission wanted the remaining bills to pass by the end of this year to allow enough time to prepare the 14 new agencies.
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we