Taipei - Taiwan's prime minister-designate, Mr Vincent Siew, yesterday vowed to improve the island's icy relations with China and maintain its status as an "Asian tiger" economy. He takes over his new post on September 1st.
"The normal development of cross-strait relations [with China] is very important . . . We hope to search for breakthroughs in the relations," Mr Siew, a legislator for the ruling party, said shortly after he was named by President Lee Teng-hui as the new prime minister.
Mr Siew, who will replace the incumbent Prime Minister, Mr Lien Chan, was once Taiwan's leading policy-maker towards China when he headed the Mainland Affairs Council in 1994-95.