Premier-designate Cho Jung-tai’s (卓榮泰) selection of J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) as minister of economic affairs has surprised many observers. While some Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators have criticized the selection over Kuo’s previous contraventions of the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法) and alleged that his company had done business with chipmakers in China linked to Huawei Technologies, most business leaders have cast the minister-designate as a dark horse against several other potential candidates because of his hands-on experience in the private sector and extensive connections in local industry.
Kuo, chairman of semiconductor raw materials and equipment supplier Topco Group, is not widely known to the public, but his career spans many fields, from food to biotech and healthcare, and from semiconductors to optoelectronics and green energy. Topco Group is not only a local supplier of semiconductor materials in Taiwan, but also plays an indispensable role in the global semiconductor supply chain. Under Kuo’s leadership, Topco has become a supplier to well-known chip companies including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
The appointment of Kuo perhaps reflects the determination of president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) administration to further bolster Taiwan’s position in the global semiconductor market. Kuo’s decades of experience in the private sector also make him stand out, because his business management skills in diverse sectors suggest that he was picked based on his merits rather than because of the perceived failures of others.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs is in charge of the nation’s industrial and trade development and supervises a wide range of businesses, including energy generation, water supply and the safety of products sold in the market. For a new minister, getting familiar with the vast and various businesses in a short period would be a challenge. When Kuo takes the helm he would also face the same difficulties his predecessor did, such as how to increase domestic investment, promote industrial innovation, assist Taiwanese businesses with global deployment and promote government efficiency.
Meanwhile, many critics have also deemed Cho’s naming of Paul Liu (劉鏡清) as National Development Council minister as an eye-opener. Once a top executive at IBM Taiwan and a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers Taiwan, Liu is one of the few experts with experience in industrial practice and professional consulting. He would be the second minister from the private sector to lead a top government agency responsible for comprehensive planning, administrative coordination, resource distribution and management control.
Liu’s predecessor Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) has over the past four years coordinated and assisted various ministries in implementing policies that cover demographic shifts, economic immigration, climate change, net zero emissions, energy transition, bilingual promotion and regional revitalization. However, the National Development Fund under the council’s supervision has drawn mounting criticism in the past few years, which would could leave Liu with little room to avoid pressure from all sides when he takes office next month.
As businessmen-turned-politicians, Kuo and Liu might not play by the rules, nor do they have to follow political traditions. For this reason, they might find new ways to forge constructive interactions with opposition legislators, and bring about positive outcomes. Although the possibility of substantial change in the government’s economic and industrial policies is low, the challenges the new ministers face are no less formidable, and they are required to come up with clear and consistent policies that guide business investment and economic development. Time would tell whether the new ministers can achieve their ambitious goals and overcome the difficulties ahead.
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