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.
Theaters and institutions in Taiwan have received 28 threatening e-mails, including bomb threats, since a documentary critical of China began being screened across the nation last month, the National Security Bureau said yesterday. The actions are part of China’s attempts to undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty, it said. State Organs (國有器官) documents allegations that Chinese government officials engage in organ harvesting and other illegal activities. From last month to Friday last week, 28 incidents have been reported of theaters or institutions receiving threats, including bomb and shooting threats, if they did not stop showing the documentary, the bureau said. Although the threats were not carried out,
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MILITARY EXERCISES: China is expected to conduct more drills in the region after President William Lai’s office announced he would stopover in Hawaii and Guam China is likely to launch military drills in the coming days near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming trip to the Pacific and scheduled US transit as a pretext, regional security officials said. Lai is to begin a visit to Taipei’s three diplomatic allies in the Pacific on Saturday, and sources told Reuters he was planning stops in Hawaii and the US territory of Guam in a sensitive trip shortly after the US presidential election. Lai’s office has yet to confirm details of what are officially “stop-overs” in the US, but is expected to do so shortly before he departs, sources
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