Chuang Suo-hang (???), vice chairman of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), was named Monday as Taiwan’s new representative to Thailand, a post that became vacant last year when the incumbent at the time fell ill and resigned.

Chuang, who is also chairman of the Taipei World Trade Center, will head the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Bankok, which represents Taiwan’s interests in Thailand in the absence of formal diplomatic ties, according to an announcement by the Presidential Office.

Chuang, 66, had served as Cabinet spokesman, deputy minister of Overseas Compatriot Affairs Council, and a one-term legislator of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), from 2005 to 2008, when the DPP first came to power.

In 2017, Chuang was appointed vice chairman of TAITRA, a government-affiliated NGO that handles Taiwan’s trade promotion, and he assumed chairmanship of the Taipei World Trade Center in January 2020.

He has been named to fill the TECO post in Bankok, which became vacant last August when the then-representative Lee Ying-yuan (???) resigned due to poor health. After Lee returned to Taiwan, he passed away in November at the age of 68.

Meanwhile, the Presidential Office has named Deputy Foreign Minister Harry Tseng (???) as the country’s new representative to Canada.

Tseng’s previous positions include Taiwan’s representative to the European Union and Belgium (2017-2020), deputy chief of the National Security Council (2016-2017), and deputy secretary general at the Presidential Office (2016). He has been serving as deputy foreign minister since July 2020.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel