Economics Minister Shen Jong-chin has been appointed as the country’s vice premier. The Cabinet announced Shen’s appointment on Friday.
The role of vice premier became vacant when Chen Chi-mai resigned from the position to run for Mayor of Kaohsiung in a by-election scheduled for August.
Shen has been at the economics ministry for 38 years and was appointed minister in August 2017. The Cabinet says that Shen has been helping to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy since the pandemic started. The Cabinet also credited Shen with playing a pivotal role in work to ramp up Taiwan’s surgical mask production after the pandemic began.
The Cabinet says it wants to make use of Shen’s experience to help get Taiwan’s economy back on track in a post-pandemic world. Deputy Economics Minister Wang Mei-hua will take up Shen’s former post at the head of the economics ministry.