1)
One of the top stories from this past week was that the chairman of the ruling Kuomintang, Eric Chu, has replaced Hung Hsiu-chu as the party’s presidential candidate. The KMT made the decision Saturday afternoon at an extraordinary party congress in Taipei.
Of the nearly 900 KMT members present at the meeting, the majority were in favor of replacing Hung with Chu. Those in favor of replacing Hung included President Ma Ying-jeou, former Vice President Lien Chan and Legislature President Wang Jin-pyng.
Hung's replacement comes less than three months after she was nominated as the KMT's presidential candidate in mid-July. There were mounting calls to replace her because she had been lagging far behind the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen in opinion polls.
Hung said that she accepts the KMT’s decision and that she will always be a KMT member, though she questioned the way the party replaced her.
2)
Also this past week, one of Taiwan’s leading think tanks, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER), slashed its forecast for the country's GDP growth for 2015.
The think tank on Thursday cut its earlier estimate of 3.04 % growth down to 0.9% for the year. That makes it the first think tank to cut its projections for Taiwan’s economic growth this year to less than one percent.
CIER President Wu Chung-shu says that the global trade in merchandise had slowed in the third quarter. And that, in turn, impacted Taiwan’s exports, a mainstay of the local economy.
CIER is projecting Taiwan’s economic growth for next year to be around 2.27%. Wu said that it will be difficult for countries to produce exceptional growth figures though, with countries like the US, Japan and China all failing to show clear signs of a recovery.
However, Deputy Finance Minister Wu Tang-chieh found reason for optimism. He said that with this year’s economic growth projection at 0.9%, there was a chance that it could be kept above 1% for the year.
3)
And finally, this past week, the organizer of a party at the Formosa Fun Coast waterpark that ended in a deadly explosion has been charged with professional negligence leading to death and injury.
Lu Chung-chi is the head of the company that organized the Color Play Asia event, held at the waterpark on June 27. An explosion sent flames into a crowd after the colored starch sprayed into the air caught fire.
The explosion has led to twelve deaths and nearly 500 injuries. To date, 71 remain hospitalized with ten listed in critical condition. An investigation has revealed that the fire began in a stage light.
While Lu has been formally charged, the Shilin District Prosecutor’s Office has dropped charges against seven other defendants, including the waterpark’s chairman due to lack of evidence.
However, a report by Taiwan’s Central News Agency says that the New Taipei City government may petition the Taiwan High Prosecutor’s Office to reconsider reinstating the charges.