Chiang Pin-kung (Jiang Binghuang) Takes Over as Minister of Health and Welfare, a Political Affairs Commissioner from the Food Science Community

Text/Executive Yuan

Executive Yuan spokesperson Sun Li-chun said today (the 17th) that after the resignation of former Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Wen-ta was approved, the post of Minister of Health and Welfare will be taken over by Chiang Pin-kung (Jiang Binghuang), a political affairs commissioner responsible for supervising affairs related to science and technology and health and welfare.

Mr. Chiang Pin-kung holds a doctorate in food science from the University of Illinois in the United States and has long been engaged in education, research and academic administrative work. He has served as associate professor, professor and director of the Institute of Food Science and Technology at National Taiwan University, dean of the College of Bioresources and Agriculture, director of the Center for General Education, provost, distinguished professor at the Institute of Food Science and Technology of National Taiwan University, and is currently a political affairs commissioner of the Executive Yuan.

The Executive Yuan said that with food safety cases occurring frequently in recent days, the public has very high expectations for the government to clean up food safety, so the Ministry of Health and Welfare needs a leader familiar with food-related issues even more. Premier Jiang decided to ask Mr. Chiang Pin-kung to serve as Minister of Health and Welfare precisely because extraordinary times require extraordinary measures. Moving away from the past notion that the Minister of Health and Welfare must be held by someone with a medical or public health background, every effort must be made to clean up food safety problems so that the public can eat with peace of mind.

Since becoming a political affairs commissioner of the Executive Yuan, Mr. Chiang Pin-kung has been responsible for assisting in supervising affairs related to health and welfare, including disease control, pharmaceutical and health affairs, and national food safety policy. In the past month or more, he also fully participated in the inter-ministerial special meetings on inferior lard chaired by Premier Jiang. He is the most familiar with the government's current food safety policy and the clearest about where each unit should review and improve. Therefore, having Chiang Pin-kung take the post of Minister of Health and Welfare will allow a seamless transition, and he will lead colleagues at the Ministry of Health and Welfare in doing a good job of safeguarding the health of people across the country.