Legislators Hsiao and Abad elected as LI and INLW Vice Presidents

(November 11, 2006/ Marrakech, Morocco) Taiwan legislator and former Secretary General of the Council of Asian Liberals & Democrats (CALD), Ms. Bi-Khim Hsiao of the Democratic Progressive Party, was re-elected as one of the six Vice Presidents of Liberal International.

Ms. Hsiao topped the race for said position.  Ms. Hsiao became the first Asian member of the LI bureau when she was elected treasurer during the 52nd LI Congress in Dakar, Senegal on October, 2003. She was elected as Vice President during the 53rd LI Congress in Sofia, Bulgaria on May 2005.

Liberal Party Vice President for Sectors, Ms. Henedina Abad, MP, was elected as Vice President of the International Network of Liberal Women. Congresswoman Abad heads the CALD women’s caucus.

Ms. Hsiao represents a Taipei City district at the legislative Yauan.  Serving as a senior member of Taiwan’s Foreign Relations Committee, she also recently served as the director of the Department of International Affairs at the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Previously, Ms. Hsiao served as an advisor to President Chen Shui-Bian, and acted as a spokesperson for President Chen’s successful election and re-election campaigns of 2000 and 2004. Additionally, she was a consultant to the Mainland Affairs Council, engaging in peace and development work in the cross strait region. She is founder of the Taiwan Association of Women in Sports, Vice Chairman of the Taiwan-Tibet Exchange Foundation and Board Member of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy. Born in Kobe, Japan, Ms. Hsiao grew up in Tainan, a city in southern Taiwan. She received her BA in East Asian Studies from Oberlin College and her MA in Political Science from Columbia University in the United States.

Ms. Abad, the representative of the lone district of the province of Batanes, is currently the Vice Chairperson of the Committee on Good Government Reorganization of the House of Representatives. Previous to her current post in government, she served as the Professor and Dean of the School of Government of the Ateneo de Manila University, a leading institute of higher learning in the Philippines. At the Ateneo, a Jesuit university, she has held various senior administrative and teaching posts. She has served many local NGOs in various capacities including Chairperson of the Transparency and Accountability Network, Executive Director of the Philippines-Canada Human Resource Development Committee, Inc. and Coordinator of the Congress for a People’s Agrarian Reform.  She finished her economics degree from the Ateneo de Manila University and her Master of Public Administration degree from the Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University. She also participated in various courses focusing on participatory development and leadership in transition economies of the Harvard Institute for International Development.

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This post was written by CALD