Kuan Chung-ming
Kuan Chung-ming is a Taiwanese economist and econometrician. He was the last minister of the Council for Economic Planning and Development from 2013 to 2014 and served as the first minister of the succeeding government agency, the National Development Council, from 2014 to 2015. He was formerly the President of National Taiwan University from 2019 to 2023 and is a Chair Professor in the Department of Finance of National Taiwan University.
Early life and education
Kuan was born in Taipei City. His father, Guan Qiyu, was from Huaining County in Anhui Province, China. Kuan's elder brother, Guan Zhongling, is a dentist who graduated from National Defense Medical Center. His younger brother, Guan Zhonghui, earned a doctorate in industrial engineering and management from National Taiwan University and teaches at the Patent Research Institute of National Taiwan University of Science and Technology.Kuan graduated from the Experimental Elementary School of National Chengchi University in 1968, Dahua High School in 1971, and Taipei Municipal Chien Kuo High School in 1974. He attended Chinese Culture University for undergraduate studies and graduated with his bachelor's degree in economics in 1978. Kuan then completed advanced studies in the United States, where he earned a Master of Arts in economics in 1984 from the University of California, Davis, and his Ph.D. in economics and econometrics from the University of California, San Diego, in 1989. His doctoral dissertation was titled, "Estimation of Neural Network Models," and was completed under the supervision of distinguished professor Halbert White and Nobel Prize laureate Clive Granger.
Political career
Kuan said in May 2013 that he was surprised at Taiwan's Q1 2013 economic growth rate of 1.54%, much lower than the forecast value of 3.26%. This was due to the low consumption by private sectors in Taiwan. Before the numbers were released, the CEPD aimed for Taiwan to show 4% overall economic growth that year, and to reach the original goal would require 5% economic growth for the remaining quarters of the year. However, investments in private sectors were rising at the time, an indication of a positive economic outlook.Commenting on Taiwan's declining ranking as measured by the International Institute for Management Development in the Global Competitiveness Report released at the end of May 2013, Kuan said that it is not that Taiwan did not improve, but that other nations improved at a faster rate than Taiwan. He added that the business regulations have been relaxed in Taiwan but not as much as what have been done in other countries.
He resigned his post as National Development Council head in January 2015. Kuan had attempted to resign in a month prior but was persuaded to stay at the time.