Taipei, Feb. 27 (CNA)
Taiwan's Government Information Office (GIO) will disappear on May 20 as part of a government restructuring project after operating for 65 years, officials said Monday.
The office's functions, which have included supervising the filmmaking and publishing sectors, promoting Taiwan, and presenting the government's point of view on public issues, will be merged into other government agencies.
The GIO's departments responsible for broadcasting, motion pictures, and publications will become part of a new Ministry of Culture after the Cabinet reorganization takes effect.
Its International Information Department will be folded into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs while its Domestic Information Department will fall under the direct jurisdiction of the Cabinet.
The agency's chiefs have traditionally served as the main government spokesman, a role that will be assumed by a ranking Cabinet official in the future.
GIO officials are now busy preparing for the transition, including dismantling GIO signboards in its building, planning a farewell party and compiling commemorative books, they said.
GIO Minister Philip Yang said he plans to invite his predecessors to the party, tentatively scheduled for May 14 or 15, and thank them for their contributions to the agency.
The agency was formally established in Nanjing on May 2, 1947, about two years before the Nationalist government's retreat to Taiwan after losing China's civil war to the communists.
(By Hsieh Chia-chen & Bear Lee)
enditem/ls
