Full Cabinet lineup settled with appointment of academics, DPP cadres

01/30/2023 05:07 PM

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Cabinet Secretary-General Li Men-yen (left) and incoming Cabinet Spokesman Chen Tsung-yen announce the lineup of the new Cabinet to be sworn in on Tuesday, at a press briefing in Taipei on Monday. CNA Jan. 30, 2023

Taipei, Jan. 30 (CNA) The full lineup of Premier-designate Chen Chien-jen's (陳建仁) new Cabinet was unveiled Monday, with academics and ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) apparatchiks among those appointed to deputy ministerial positions.

From the world of academia, Roy Lee (李淳), a trade liberalization policy, WTO, services trade and regional integration professor, will serve as deputy foreign minister, incoming Cabinet Spokesman Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥) told a press conference Monday.

Lee, currently the senior deputy executive director of the Taiwan WTO and RTA Center at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, will replace Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥), following the latter's appointment as National Security Bureau secretary-general.

Chen added that Wang Ya-fen (王雅玢), a professor at Chung Yuan University's Department of Environmental Engineering, had been appointed the deputy minister at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Wang, the current head of the Sustainable Environmental Education Center and Taiwan Association for Aerosol Research, will become the first female deputy minister in the EPA's 36-year history and replaces the retiring Tsai Hung-teh (蔡鴻德).

Meanwhile, Chen also announced the appointment of Deputy Secretary-General to the President Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋), a former DPP lawmaker, as deputy Minister of Labor.

In addition, former DPP Taipei City Councilor Ruan Jhao-syong (阮昭雄) will serve as deputy minister for Overseas Community Affairs Council, while Chou Chiang-chieh (周江杰) will become deputy minister at the Hakka Affairs Council.

At Monday's press conference, incoming Executive Yuan Secretary-General Li Men-yen (李孟諺) noted that the number of women in the Cabinet had increased by three to seven.

Li said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) had tasked the new Cabinet with addressing four main areas -- post-pandemic economic recovery, infrastructure, bolstering Taiwan's social safety net and assisting the "six key strategic industries" of communication technology, information security, precision healthcare, defense, renewable energy and wartime necessities.

Earlier on Monday, ex-Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) led his Cabinet members to resign en masse, part of a reshuffle prompted by DPP's bruising defeat in local government elections in November last year.

The 75-year-old Su, who has headed the executive branch under Tsai since January 2019, tendered his resignation on Jan. 19 after an earlier offer to resign was turned down by the president on election night.

Su is the longest-serving premier since Taiwan first held direct presidential elections in 1996.

The new Cabinet led by Chen Chien-jen, who served as vice president during Tsai's first term from 2016-2020, will be sworn in on Tuesday.