The Executive Yuan is expected to soon approve the establishment of the Ministry of Digital Development as part of its organizational reform plan, sources said on Saturday.
The role and function of the new ministry has attracted attention, as its main duties would involve digital industry development, Internet supervision and cybersecurity.
The Executive Yuan plans to merge the Department of Cyber Security with the ministry, as well as shift the National Communications Commission’s Internet supervision and digital streaming oversight to the new agency, sources said.
Once President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) approve the plan, following discussion with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers, the Cabinet would submit draft amendments, which include modifications to five other agencies, for approval before sending them to the legislature for review, they said.
The Ministry of Science and Technology is also to transform into a commission, with some of its duties to be merged into the new ministry, an Executive Yuan official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
An amendment to the Organizational Act of the Executive Yuan (行政院組織法), which passed a third reading at the Legislative Yuan in 2010, stipulated that the 37 agencies under the Cabinet be reduced to 29, a process that began in 2012.
Five agencies have still not completed their organizational reform, namely the Council of Agriculture, which is to become the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Administration, which is to become the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, the sources said.
In addition, a new National Parks Administration is to be created as part of the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to become the Ministry of Transportation and Construction, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs is to become the Ministry of Economic and Energy Affairs, they said.
Su has participated in the integration process, arranging report sessions to listen to the five agencies’ plans, and the Executive Yuan hopes to submit the drafted amendments to complete the restructuring within the current legislative session, the said.
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
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