Taiwan cabinet reshuffle fails to wow public

TAIPEI (AFP) - Taiwan's cabinet resigned on Thursday before a reshuffle touted by President Ma Ying-jeou as adding new skills and capability to his government, but his poll ratings remained near historic lows.

Premier Sean Chen announced his resignation last week over health reasons, less than nine months into Mr Ma's second term, after his cabinet came under fire for poor handling of the economy.

He will continue in a caretaker role until a new cabinet, to be headed by current Vice Premier Jiang Yi-huah, 53, takes over on Feb 18 after the Chinese New Year holidays.

"Jiang has done a good job in finding people with great leadership abilities and capabilities in various fields," Mr Ma said earlier this week when introducing the new cabinet.