Chiang Been-huang, the Executive Yuan's minister without portfolio overseeing health, welfare, science and technology affairs, has been appointed head of the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), Executive Yuan Spokesperson Sun Lih-chyun announced today. Chiang replaces Chiu Wen-ta, who resigned on October 3.
Chiang has a Ph.D. in food science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the United States. Prior to being named a minister without portfolio, he had worked at universities and research institutes as well as administrative posts in academia. He has served as an associate professor, professor, distinguished professor and director of the Institute of Food Science and Technology of National Taiwan University (NTU), dean of NTU's College of Bioresources and Agriculture, and director and dean of NTU's Office of Academic Affairs.
The Executive Yuan stated that because there have been quite a few food-safety incidents recently, and the public ardently expects the government to take further steps to ensure public health, it has become necessary for the MOHW to have a leader who knows the field. Premier Jiang Yi-huah has thus decided to ask Chiang to head the MOHW.
It had been a tradition for the leader of the MOHW or its precursor, the Department of Health, to come from medical profession or have a public-health background. However, the premier believes that extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. It is imperative for the new minister to devote himself fully to food safety so that the public can eat with peace of mind, the Executive Yuan said.
Chiang was named a minister without portfolio this February. Health and welfare-related affairs he was tasked to oversee during that time included disease prevention and control, medicine and sanitation, and national food-safety policies. For more than a month, Chiang has attended all the cross-ministerial ad hoc meetings concerning the recycled tainted lard oil scandal, which were presided over by the premier.
Therefore, Chiang is most familiar with the current government food-safety policies and the needed improvements each agency must make. As head of the MOHW, he will seamlessly link government policies in leading the ministry's staff to safeguard the health of the nation's citizens, officials said.