Asia-Pacific News
Taiwan shuffles cabinet after deadly typhoon
Sep 10, 2009, 5:18 GMT
Taipei - Taiwan shuffled its cabinet Thursday in a bid to rebuild the government's image, tarnished over its handling of Typhoon Morakot.
Outgoing Premier Liu Chao-shiuan is to hand over power to his successor, Wu Den-yih, the former secretary general of the ruling Chinese Nationalist Party, at a ceremony Thursday afternoon.
Liu quit Monday to take responsibility for the government's slow response to Typhoon Morakot, which killed 758 people and was the deadliest storm to hit Taiwan in 50 years.
President Ma Ying-jeou is to hold a news conference later Thursday to explain the new cabinet's policies.
The government's handling of the typhoon caused Ma's popularity to drop to a record 16 per cent, according to cable television channel TVBS.
The National Chengchih University's polling centre put Ma's odds of winning re-election in 2012 at 53.6 per cent, down 8.1 per cent, for the same reason.
Thursday's reshuffle saw one-third of the cabinet members replaced, including the premier and vice premier as well as the foreign, defence, economics and interior ministers.
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