Taipei, Sept. 5 (CNA) Outgoing Tainan Mayor Lai Ching-te (賴清德), who has been appointed premier by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), sent a letter to his city government team Tuesday, in which he wrote that no matter which position he holds, all his hard work is for Taiwan.

Lai thanked his colleagues at the Tainan City government for their support and bade farewell to them in the letter.

As Tainan mayor, he has treated the citizens as his family and has been devoted to finding problems and sorting them out so that the environment of Tainan can be improved, he wrote.

Lai also mentioned his accomplishments as mayor of the southern Taiwan municipality, including the formation of a balanced city budget for 2018, success in flood control, and the establishment of a complete city transportation network.

He also wrote that Tainan's tourism is recovering from the low after the city was hit by massive dengue fever outbreaks in 2015 and a destructive earthquake on Feb. 6, 2016.

As a politician, he further wrote, "all hard work is for the land of Taiwan."

Lai is expected to take over as premier on Friday, but he will first have to resign from his local government position before he can assume his new office.

Lin Ching-chi (林清淇), head of the Director of Civil Affairs under the Ministry of the Interior, said that Lai's term as Tainan mayor will expire Dec. 25, 2018. This means that the mayor still has about one year and four months of his tenure if he stays in the post.

However, as Lai is soon to submit his resignation, under the Local Government Act, the vacancy to be left by Lai should be filled by an acting mayor appointed by the Executive Yuan, the top administrative branch of the government, because his remaining tenure is less then half of his four-year term, Lin said.

The act stipulates that a by-election is required only when a mayor resigns before the first half of his/her tenure.

Tsai officially announced earlier in the day that Lai will be the new premier, replacing Lin Chuan (林全), who made public his intention to stand down the previous day, after assuming office on May 20, 2016.

Lai is scheduled to hold a press conference at Tainan City Hall on Wednesday, before turning to the city council to bid farewell to councilors, according to the Tainan City government. 

(By Chang Jung-hsiang, Claudia Liu and Elizabeth Hsu)
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