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Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen advocated Saturday what she called a 'pragmatic China policy' based on the principles of independent sovereignty for Taiwan and peaceful engagement with China. Tsai, who is seeking reelection as head of the main opposition DPP, made the remarks at a forum where the two candidates for party leadership presented policy statements. She said the DPP would not refuse to engage China to deepen mutual understanding between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait as long as Beijing sets no preconditions for the cross-strait exchanges. Tsai said she would seek to enlarge Taiwan's say in cross-strait affairs and that engagement with China would not involve amendments to the DPP's Taiwan independence guideline. During the eight years in power before 2008, the DPP contributed largely to heightening the public's sense of a 'Taiwan identity, ' with most of the country's citizens seeing themselves as 'Taiwanese.' For the future, Tsai said the DPP should seek to further solidify the sense of 'Taiwan identity.' Tsai said it is the duty of 'this generation of 23 million Taiwan people' to strive for the right of their future generations to decide whether Taiwan should seek independence from or unify with China. 'The right of future generations to make choices should not be written off by either engagement with China or globalization, 'she added. DPP will elect a new chairman May 23. Tsai is being challenged by former Taipei County Magistrate You Ching in the race.

The Yulon Luxgen beat defending champion Dacin Tigers 71-70 in Game 6 of the 2010 Super Basketball League (SBL) Finals to win their first SBL title in four years. Yulon, which last hoisted the championship trophy in 2006, won the title despite being the only team in the seven-team SBL not to hire a foreign player. Yulon point guard Chen Chih-chung, 33, was named the championship series MVP for his consistent performance throughout the best-of-seven series. Dacin had chances to extend the series to a Game 7 and tied the score at 70-70 after a dunk by American import Byron Allen with 28.3 seconds remaining. But on the next possession, Yulon forward Yang Che-yi was sent to the line on a foul by Dacin forward Chen Tse-wei with only 1.5 seconds remaining. Yang made the first of two free throws to put his team ahead and intentionally missed the second, leaving Dacin without time to get off a potential game-winning shot. Yulon, which had led most of the game, seemed headed for a breakdown after starting center Tseng Wen-ting fouled out with 6: 05 to go in the third quarter. But veteran sub Wu Chih-wei picked up the slack, scoring 11 of his 13 points in the final two quarters. After clinching the title, Tseng said the team was dedicating the championship to its late head coach Chien Yi-fei, who passed away in 2007. Yulon won three straight titles from 2004-2006 during the league's first three years but had only made it to the SBL finals once in the last three years, losing to Taiwan Beer 4-2 in 2008. The Yulon Group, which operates the Yulon Luxgen men's basketball team and Taiyuan Textile women's basketball team, also became the first team owner to win men's and women's basketball titles in the same year. Taiyuan won its first Women's Super League Basketball League (WSBL) title earlier this week.

President Ma Ying-jeou will be halfway through his four-year term on May 20. The first half of his term has not been easy, and the second is expected to be bumpy and fraught with challenges. In a speech on May 20, Ma will give details of his vision for a 'golden decade,' based on a 10-year development plan that is reportedly being drafted by the Council for Economic Planning and Development. We are pleased that the head of state has a vision for the country, but too many of the government's visions in the last decade have turned out to be nothing more than a pie in the sky, or old wine in new bottles that are gathering dust in the government's storeroom. We are fed up with these visions and cannot figure out why President Ma will indulge in this old trick. It has been reported that Ma's golden decade is nothing more than his plans to cope with issues that have badgered the country in the last few years and have already been discussed in various conferences many times. We cannot understand why they should be repeated under a new name. The administration's efficiency in churning out visions makes Taiwan the regional center of visions. We believe the president's job during the remainder of his term should be carrying out his current policies rather than mapping out new visions. We are not playing down the importance of visions, but we believe actions are more important than talk. We do not really expect a Cabinet that changes its cast so frequently to come up any creative visions for the country, but why should it waste time drafting plans that will only end up in the trash a few years later. In the absence of courage to address problems facing the country, the golden decade will be nothing more than a euphemism for a stagnant decade. (May 17, 2010)

An award-winning movie actor and founding member of a local trade union for actors died Sunday at his Taipei home at the age of 92. Ke Hsiang-ting's family said his health had been deteriorating in recent days and his children were at his bedside when he passed away. Ke was born in 1917 in eastern China's Jiangsu Province. He joined the military, where he began his acting career, serving in the entertainment corps after arriving in Taiwan with the army. He later began getting parts in movies and was in the business for more than six decades. He won a Golden Horse award in 1965 as best leading actor for his role in 'Beautiful Duckling' and another in 1970 for 'The Evergreen Mountains.' He also received a Golden Horse lifetime achievement award in 2005. Besides his work in front of the camera, he also worked hard to improve the welfare of those employed in the entertainment business, and in 1978, founded the Actor's Union of the Republic of China, Taiwan's first actors union, which he also headed. Li Hsing, a film director and an old friend of Ke, said later that day that he plans to present a film festival of Ke's works in cooperation with the Chinese Taipei Film Archive, Taiwan's national film center, to commemorate his contributions to Taiwanese film industry.

President Ma Ying-jeou will visit northern Taiwan's Elementary School of National Hsinchu University of Education on the second anniversary of his inauguration May 20, to find out more about the challenges of the country's inclusive education program, a Presidential Office spokesman said Monday. Lo Chih-chiang said there will be no large-scale celebrations to mark the inauguration anniversary. The Presidential Office, he said, will hold a May 19 news conference to elaborate on Ma's future direction, and Ma will visit the school the following day. 'The focus should not be on formalities but on the concrete results that have been achieved,' Lo said. According to the Presidential Office, Ma plans to spend about five hours at the school's special education campus -- which admits both general students and students with special educational needs -- because he hopes to bring more public attention to the development of Taiwan's inclusive education. In addition to watching a documentary film with general and special students, Ma will also attend a seminar with teachers and parents and have lunch with the students, the office said. The elementary school is well-known for its inclusive program, which has three classes of preschool and six classes of elementary school students. In each class, 16 general students and eight special needs students learn together, according to the school's website.

A cutting-edge navigation system for the visually impaired won applause Monday at a presentation of local biotechnological and medical research held jointly by the Institute for Biotechnology and Medicine Industry and Academia Sinica Monday. The software, developed by a research team led by professor Ren C. Luo at National Taiwan University's Department of Electrical Engineering, can transform a smartphone into an electronic compass able to speak to its user. Luo said that with 'guilink,' blind people will be able to travel without canes or guides. The next step is for his team to develop an obstacle sensor, Luo said, adding that the ultimate goal is to allow Taiwan's 78,000 visually impaired people to be able to travel safely and conveniently. At the presentation, the system was honored with a national award for excellence in innovation.

The Sun Moon Lake Pass, which gives travelers a big discount on transportation in the tourist hot spot, has proven so popular that businesses are rushing to print and distribute another 10,000 passes to meet demand. Local businesses first launched the pass on May 7 with the support of the Sun Moon Lake National Scenic Area Administration, and the first two runs of 5,000 passes each sold out within 10 days, administration officials said. Repeated complaints from consumers who were unable to buy a pass convinced the administration to call for another 10,000 of the transportation vouchers to be printed. The NT$299 pass is good for one boat ride across the popular lake in central Taiwan's Nantou County, one ride on a bus that circles the lake, and a round- trip on the cable car connecting the lake to the Formosan Aboriginal Cultural Village. It also includes rental coupons for both bicycles and electric bicycles. Passes currently being sold can be used until the end of the year. The administration said the positive market reaction shows the pass has met tourists' need for convenient transportation at the right price and is in line with the Tourism Bureau's initiative to improve public transportation at major travel destinations. As part of the initiative, the Tourism Bureau launched 20 bus routes around Taiwan in April, including the route linking main bus and rail stations in Taichung to Sun Moon Lake. Officials added that people can buy the pass, plus a round-trip bus ticket between Sun Moon Lake and Taichung and a ticket to the aboriginal theme park for NT$899. The package, however, does not include a ride on the cable car. The success of the pass has spawned new problems. Many pass holders have complained about the long waits for the bus and cable car, and officials said measures are being adopted to improve service, including adding more manpower.

Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin called Tuesday for direct flights between Taipei Songshan Airport and Shanghai's Hongqiao Airport before June 14 when he is due to visit Shanghai for 'Taipei Culture Week' at the 2010 World Exposition. Hau said the airlines and civil aviation authorities of the two sides have been negotiating the technical details of the matter and he hopes the flights could be launched before his departure date. 'The Taipei City government will definitely help with the initiative,' he said. 'Songshan-Hongqiao flights are crucial to establishing a one-day life cycle between the two major destinations across the Taiwan Strait and to attracting visitors to the Taipei International Floral Exposition in November,' Hau said. Taiwan's largest gateway, Taoyuan international airport, is located some 80 kilometers south of Taipei. Hau said the Songshan-Hongqiao flights will not affect the current five weekly flights between Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Pudong, which is the main domestic airport in Shanghai. Taiwan's main carriers -- China Airlines (CAL) , EVA Airways and Trans Asia Airways -- all operate direct flights to various destinations in China. In light of strong demand for cross-strait cargo and passenger transportation, the Macquarie Group, a global investment bank and financial services group, raised its profit forecasts for CAL and EVA Airways in its latest report Tuesday. The current 270 cross-strait flights per week will not be able to handle the large number of Chinese tourists to Taiwan, which has grown to 3,824 per day in recent weeks, Macquarie analysts said. It would require 580 flights per week to handle the passenger load, the analysts said. In the report, the analysts raised their forecasts for CAL's share price from NT$14.5 to NT$17 and it revised its EPS for this year to 36 percent. The analysts also adjusted their forecasts for EVA Airway's share price from NT$16.5 to NT$19.5, with an EPS of 37 percent for 2010. The report retained its 'outperforming' rating for both CAL and EVA Airways.

A proposal for visa-waiver privileges for Taiwanese travelers to Europe's Schengen Area is expected to be submitted by the European Commission, but there is no timetable for when the proposal will be passed, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) official said Tuesday. A proposal to grant Taiwanese travelers visa-free privileges for the 25 European countries under the Schengen Agreement is expected to be discussed and voted on in the European Parliament, with another discussion in the EU Council before it takes effect in the near future, said Chiu Jong-jen, director-general of the MOFA's Department of European Affairs. 'We have met every requirement under the EU visa-waiver program. Our case is a simple one and I expect good news very soon, ' Chiu said in a press briefing. The ministry has been working on the proposal with the EU since early last year and had said earlier that the proposal would be passed before June, although it later changed its statement, saying that the widely anticipated visa-waiver is expected to be granted before the end of the year. However, the statement was made before Taiwan's execution of four death row inmates April 30 sparked condemnation from the EU. Catherine Ashton, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, and the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights both issued statements condemning the executions. Guy Ledoux, head of the European Economic and Trade Office (EETO) , the organization that represents EU interests in Taiwan, also asked Taiwan to restore a de facto moratorium on the death penalty. The MOFA has reiterated its hope that the issue of the death penalty and the visa-waiver program can be kept as separate issues. The EETO declined to comment on the visa-waiver proposal, saying only that once the proposal is submitted, the office or the EU will make a public announcement on the matter.

Taiwan reported Tuesday the country's eighth case of severe enterovirus infection this year, the same day it announced that a locally developed vaccine against enterovirus type 71 (EV71) -- the deadliest type of the virus -- is expected to enter the human trial stage this year. Lin Ting, deputy director-general of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), briefed the press on the latest situation at a news conference earlier in the day, saying that the latest EV71 case involved an 11-month-old boy living in northern Taiwan. The infant was hospitalized a few days previously after showing symptoms including fever and cramps that suggested infection with the virus, Lin said, noting that the boy was in stable condition after treatment. Lin pointed out that Taiwan has entered the enterovirus season, citing statistics showing that 8.85 out of every 1,000 patients seeking emergency medical attention this year displayed symptoms suggesting various types of enterovirus infection. Children are particularly vulnerable, with severe complications occurring easily among children under 3 years old who get infected by an older child in the family. This is because younger children have weaker immune systems and are exposed to higher levels of the virus than the initial victims, according to the CDC. In 1998, Taiwan experienced a serious outbreak of EV71, with 405 severe infections recorded, 78 of which were fatal. Another EV71 outbreak in 2005 resulted in 145 severe infections, 15 of which ending in death. These outbreaks prompted the state-run National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) to develop a vaccine for EV71. Meanwhile that day, Minister of Health Yaung Chih-liang, who was in the Swiss city of Geneva to attend the annual World Health Assembly, told local reporters by telephone that human trials of the locally developed vaccine will begin in September. NHRI Secretary-General Chiang Hung-che said the NHRI will later transfer the technique for producing the new vaccine to the civil sector, adding that the government has set a goal for the vaccine to be marketed within three years of the technique transfer. Lin said the CDC will encourage pharmaceutical companies to put the vaccine on the market as soon as possible by promising them that the government will procure it.

The production value of Taiwan's telecommunications sector rose 34.5 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier on rising demand from telecom service providers and small- and medium-sized enterprises. According to statistics released by the Industry & Technology Intelligence Services (ITIS) , the telecommunications sector had a production value of NT$161.1 billion (US$5.1 billion) in the first three months of 2010. The ITIS, set up by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) to provide market information to the industrial sector, attributed the sector's high year-on-year growth to strong demand and the low baseline set in the first quarter of 2009 when the worldwide economic slump was at its worst. The market researcher said it expects the robust global demand to be sustained throughout the year and drive production value up 18 percent year-on-year to NT$769.1 billion. The production value of local mobile phone makers in the January-March period rose 43.4 percent from a year earlier largely on successful marketing strategies employed by Motorola and Sony Ericsson, the ITIS said. As a result, shipments of Taiwan-made handsets to the U.S., Europe and Asia in the first quarter were better than expected. The personal mobile device segment, on the other hand, was hurt by weaker demand for personal navigation devices (PNDs) from the U.S. and Europe and competition from PND-equipped handsets. But the impact was mitigated to some extent as Garmin Corp. started selling its products to China and TomTom International launched low-priced models in North America. In the first quarter, production value of Taiwan's PND sector rose 0.7 percent from a year earlier to NT$23.9 billion, the statistics showed. The wireless local area network (WLAN) sector saw its production value rose 90.9 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier to NT$14.7 billion on strong demand from notebook and netbook computer makers, the ITIS said. Local makers of digital subscriber line customer premise equipment (DSL CPE) enjoyed a 12.1 percent rise in production value from a year earlier to NT$11.1 billion as new wireless technology boosted demand for the devices, the ITIS said.

A company that has sponsored a second-tier women's tennis tournament in Taiwan for the past two years is now hoping to attract the likes of Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin and Maria Sharapova to Taiwan to play in a high profile invitational event. Two European players among Henin, Clijsters and Daniela Hantuchova, an American player, who could be Sharapova or one of the Williams sisters, are among those being targeted for a planned eight-player Taipei Ladies Open in 2011, said Robert Han, president of the Orient Express Container (OEC) Group. Other participants would include a Japanese player and two players each from Taiwan and China, Han said. The invitational is scheduled to be played at Taipei Arena from Sept. 19-24, 2011. According to Han, the tournament will have a total purse of US$600,000 and additional appearance fees of US$1 million and would be sandwiched between WTA (Women's Tennis Association) Tour tournaments in China and Japan. 'Our goal is to organize a WTA Tour tournament in Taiwan in the future,' Han said. The group is also trying to lure either former world No. 1 Anna Ivanovic of Serbia or Hantuchova to participate in this year's OEC Taipei Ladies Open, part of the second-tier ITF (International Tennis Federation), which will be played from Nov. 1-7 in Taipei, Han said. Whether Han will be able to draw the biggest names in women's tennis, especially in a sport notorious for late withdrawals due to injury, is open to question. Local sports promoters often try to draw big name players or events, but have trouble finding the necessary sponsorship. A reported visit of the Spanish professional football club Real Madrid this summer as a part of its Asian tour, which received heavy media coverage last year, appears to have been called off.

National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) in Hsinchu City said Wednesday it has received a large donation from a former student who wanted to fulfill his father's dream. Lee Wei-de has donated NT$150 million (US$5 million) to NTHU to help build a center for research on clean energy, the university said in a statement. NTHU said the donation was the largest in its history from an individual. Lee, who lives in Silicon Valley in the United States and works in the construction industry, graduated from NTHU's Department of Engineering and System Science in 1969. Lee was quoted as having said that his father Lee Chuen-min was deeply inspired by Wu Xun, a beggar who established three schools in China during the Qing Dynasty. Lee Chuen-min regretted the fact that he was not able to make a similar contribution, therefore, the donation to NTHU is a fulfillment of his dream, his son said. The donor did not show up at the school's press conference Tuesday and has declined any press interviews, President of NTHU Chen li-chun said. According to Chen, Lee Wei-de does not consider himself a rich man, but he wants to make a contribution to society and he thinks that an investment in education is the smartest way to spend money. The donor hopes that more people would follow his lead and help NTHU to finish the project and obtain ranking as one of world's top 100 universities, Chen said. The new research center at National Hsing Hua University, which is located in northern Taiwan, will be named the Lee Chuen-min Building in appreciation of Lee's gesture, Chen said.

Taiwan's national debt in 2009 amounted to 38.58 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) , well below the internationally recognized ceiling of 60 percent of GDP, according to a report by the Switzerland-based Institute for Management and Development (IMD). The IMD, in the wake of the debt crises that have swept through southern European countries, released 'The Debt Stress Test' report, which showed that Taiwan was one of the countries with a debt/GDP ratios of between 20-40 percent. Other countries in that range included Switzerland, South Korea, Thailand, South Africa, Mexico, New Zealand, Indonesia and Venezuela. Those with debt/GDP ratios of 40 percent to 60 percent included Jordan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Poland, Singapore, Turkey, Finland, Sweden end Denmark. China, along with Luxembourg, Qatar, Russia and Hong Kong were listed as having lowest debt-GDP ratios of below 20 percent. Japan was ranked by the IMD among those countries with the heaviest debt burden and was not forecast to reach the 60-percent level until 2084. Italy's debt situation was not expected to improve until 2060, or Belgium's until 2035, according to the report. However, those three countries were considered to be at relatively low risk as most of their debts are to their domestic institutions. Greece and Portugal, which were forecast to see debt relief by 2031 and 2035 respectively, were considered relatively risky as they owed 106 billion euros and 44 billion euros respectively to foreign banks.

Taiwanese singing sensation Lin Yu-chun arrived in Los Angeles Wednesday ahead of a performance at a Los Angeles Dodgers Taiwan promotion this weekend. Lin, who vaulted to fame in April with his rendition of the Whitney Houston version of 'I Will Always Love You' on a Taiwanese talent show, said he was very excited to have been invited to perform at the world-renowned stadium for baseball fans. 'I feel kind of nervous, though. To sing outdoors in such a large stadium is a big challenge for me. My brain is full of the lyrics that I will sing that day, ' Lin said after his arrival at the Los Angeles International Airport. This is the 24-year-old singer's second visit to Los Angeles. He visited the city in April to appear on the talk-variety shows The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Lopez Tonight, and his renditions of several popular songs wowed American audiences. TMZ, a celebrity news Web site, posted an article recently that introduced Lin as 'the Taiwanese, male Whitney Houston.' Many travelers asked to take photos with him at the airport, stood by as he was interviewed by the media, and asked reporters about Lin's itinerary in Los Angeles. Lin said he was shocked to know that Dodger Stadium can seat nearly 60,000. 'It's really an honor for me to sing at the baseball team's Taiwan promotion activity, ' he said with a radiant smile. Lin said he will stay in his hotel room for the next couple days to rehearse the three songs, including the U.S. national anthem and Taiwan Touch Your Heart, to be performed Saturday. 'I will get versed in all of them and demonstrate my best to the crowd,' he said confidently. Lin just signed a record deal with Sony Music Entertainment in Shanghai on May 13. Sony Music said in a statement that Lin's debut album, featuring Chinese and English songs, will be released in July. Lin only gained attention a month ago when he performed on the 'Avenue to Stardom' talent show and his performance later went viral on the Internet, drawing comparisons with Susan Boyle, a 48-year-old Scottish karaoke singer plucked from obscurity when she performed on 'Britain's Got Talent' and who subsequently signed a deal with Sony. Lin's weekend performance will be part of the Dodgers' 'My Town' series. The promotion honors fans from all corners of the globe -- including Cuba, the Philippines and Japan -- and the local community on select nights during the season. According to the Dodgers official Web site, fans who buy tickets in two designated sections of the stadium on Taiwan Day will receive a free 'Dodgertown' T-shirt (with the second 'o' shaped like the island of Taiwan) and 'an all-inclusive themed menu' featuring shacha sauce spiced pork, jasmine steamed rice and lychees. Fans who attend that afternoon's game between the Dodgers and the Detroit Tigers may also have a chance to see two Taiwanese Major League players -- Dodgers reliever Kuo Hong-chih and Tigers reliever Ni Fu-te -- in action. The left-handed Kuo, a native of Tainan, started the season injured but has since made six appearances and given up two runs in four and two-thirds innings while striking out six. Ni, also a left-hander and hailing from Pingtung County, has appeared in 10 games for the Tigers and given up three runs in 13 and one-third innings. He has struck out 17 batters and walked 11.

BUYING RATES SELLING RATES US dollar 32.018 32.418 Euro 39.99 40.99 Hong Kong dollar 4.078 4.178 Japanese yen 0.3545 0.3605 Australian dollar 26.35 26.55 Canadian dollar 30.07 30.27 Pound sterling 46.17 46.57 Singapore dollar 22.72 22.92 South African rand 4.013 4.113 Sweden krone 4.017 4.117 Swiss Franc 27.89 28.09 Thai baht 0.9778 1.0178 N. Zealand dollar 21.44 21.64 Chinese yuan 4.643 4.898 * Exchange rates for the US dollar in amounts less than US$10,000.

The U.S. dollar gained ground against the Taiwan dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange Friday, rising NT$0.075 to close at the day's high of NT$32.25. A total of US$1.08 billion changed hands during the trading session. The U.S. dollar opened at NT$32.175 and fell to NT$32.090 before rebounding.

Minister of Justice Tseng Yong-fu met with an anti-death penalty group for the first time Friday to discuss capital punishment, which has become a hot-button issue since Taiwan's execution of four death-row prisoners last month. The group and the minister both agreed that while Taiwan's ultimate goal is to abolish the death penalty, it would require collaborative efforts over time to convince the public, Wu Chih-kuang, deputy convener of Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP), told the media after the 90-minute meeting. According to Wu, the group thinks that a moratorium on executions is an important step toward abolition of the death penalty, and that it should be implemented while the public discussion is in progress, Wu said. However, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) did not specify whether it would consider the suggestion, he said. Before the closed-door meeting, Tseng said the ministry realizes that abolition of capital punishment is one of the country's goals, but knows it would be a long process. Taiwan executed four of the 44 prisoners on row April 30, five weeks after former Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng resigned amid a political storm sparked by her statement that she would not sign any death warrants during her term. The TAEDP has petitioned the Justices of Constitutional Court, on behalf of the remaining 40 inmates, for a Constitutional ruling. Asked whether there will be more executions in the future, Wu said Tseng has told the group that the MOJ will respect the Constitutional Court's decision on those cases, but will not set a timetable for abolition of the death penalty. Nonetheless, the minister promised to speed up the work of a special task force, which comprises scholars, civil groups and officials, to forge consensus on the issue, Wu said. The alliance is pleased to know that the MOJ will actively support the task force, said Lin Hsin-yi, executive director of the TAEDP. However, transparency will be very important during the process, she said. 'The more people know, the easier it will be to forge consensus and to communicate, ' she said. 'The same applies to every major policy and social issue.'

A delegation from China's southwestern province of Sichuan is scheduled to arrive in Taiwan Sunday and attend a procurement meeting in Taipei the following day, Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) officials said Saturday. The delegation, led by Sichuan's communist party secretary Liu Qibao, is expected to place orders on Taiwan's agricultural and food products, consumer products, electrical appliances, flat panels, and machinery equipment, according to a TAITRA press release. A total of 56 Sichuan-based companies -- some of which are well-known companies with annual turnover of more than US$7 billion - will accompany Liu on the visit and will attend purchase meetings. The companies include Sichuan Changhong Group, Chengdu Construction Engineering Corporation, Sichuan Changzheng Machine Tool Group, Sichuan Kelun Pharmaceutical Co., and Sichuan Yadong Cement Co.. As several Chinese construction companies will also visit Taiwan with the delegation this time, that may generate some business opportunities for Taiwan to participate in the development of China's western regions, the TAITRA said. China's western development project is expected to become a major force to drive China's domestic demand in the next 10 years, it added. Liu, at the invitation of the Kuomintang (KMT) , will lead his delegation on exchange activities in the areas of economy, finance, education and culture during his seven-day visit -- which marks the latest in a series of visits by mainland heavyweights and provinces to Taiwan amid warming ties. Sichuan is the fifth largest province in China, with a population of 80 million people and gross domestic product of 1.4 trillion Chinese yuan.

Taiwan's National Palace Museum has launched a permanent exhibition which displays Chinese bronze artifacts spanning 1,500 years, from the late Xia dynasty (early 1700 B.C.) to the Zhou (475-221 B.C.) -- a period known as the Bronze Age of China. The artifacts, which went on exhibit Friday, are from the royal collections of the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties between the 10th and 20th centuries, and reflect the exquisite taste of China's royal families. The museum hopes that through the exhibit, 'Rituals Cast in Brilliance -- Chinese Bronzes Through the Ages, ' people will be able to learn the complete development of an exquisite material culture in early Chinese ages, a museum spokesman said. Categorized based on their materials, the items in the exhibit are displayed in the permanent exhibit galleries 305 and 307. According to the museum, in the remote eras that existed during the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, bronze was mainly cast into ritual objects, in addition to weaponry, to offer sacrifices to ancestors for their blessings of an everlasting lineage. Furthermore, from the arrangement and quantity of bronzes displayed in a given ceremony, one can discern the specific social status and position of that noble host. Bronzes were thus the most important ritual objects in the aristocratic Shang and Zhou Dynasties (1600-221 B.C.). In many aspects, these two early dynasties were crucial to the formation of Chinese culture. Politically, with a burgeoning humanistic awareness, the belief in rule by theocracy gradually transitioned to that of rituals and proprieties. Materially, the advanced bronze melting and casting skills initiated a new age of ritual vessels and weaponry, and the breakthrough in craftsmanship and technologies gave rise to a wide range of flourishing industries.

While welcoming the first 'significant' front of the plum rain season, the Central Weather Bureau issued a warning Sunday against torrential rain nationwide and in central and southern Taiwan in particular. 'Members of the public are advised not to take the coming precipitation front lightly, as its force has just begun, ' warned Cheng Ming-tien, director of the Central Weather Bureau's Weather Forecast Center, in a post on Facebook. The Central Weather Bureau issued warnings around noon Sunday against torrential rain, forecasting that precipitation around Taiwan proper and the outlying islands could reach the 'torrential rain' level -- 130 mm in 24 hours -- in the coming two days. Cheng called for the public to make disaster-prevention preparations. As of noon that day, rainfall in Alishan in the southern county of Chiayi had reached 87 mm, with 84 mm recorded in Wuqi, Hengshan and Shengang townships in the central county of Taichung, according to the weather bureau. Meanwhile, the Highway Bureau activated emergency alert and evacuation mechanisms for mountainous areas in southern Kaohsiung County, including Taoyuan and Namasia rural townships, where the land has become fragile after Typhoon Morakot wreaked havoc last August. Hsu Wen-yi, a patrolman with the Highway Bureau, called for residents in these rural townships to prepare themselves for possible evacuation and relocation. On the outlying island of Kinmen, a landslide triggered by heavy rain occurred on a road near Taiwu Mountain earlier that day, causing problems for motorists. Only three days ago, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) decided that the launch of an irrigation program for the second rice crop in southern Taiwan this year will be postponed until June 21, given that a drought in the southern counties is likely to persist through May. The MOEA's Water Resources Agency said it did not exclude the possibility of letting the rice paddies lie fallow if rainfall remains insignificant in southern Taiwan until mid-June. If the policy is implemented, it will be the first time in 30 years that paddies for the second crop in southern Taiwan have been left fallow, according to WRA officials. Even though this year's plum rain season began in early May, rainfall in southern Taiwan, particularly in the upstream catchment areas of the region's major reservoirs, has not been significant. Rainfall in the southern counties of Tainan and Kaohsiung has totaled only about 25 percent of the amounts recorded in previous years, the officials said.

Taiwan share prices closed up 1.17 percent Monday after Wall Street made a comeback at the end of last week, dealers said. The weighted index closed 85.02 points higher at 7,322.73, after fluctuating between 7,269.81 and 7,344.92, on turnover of NT$65.41 billion (US$2.03 billion). The market opened 0.81 percent higher, as investors took cues from Wall Street's gains, and the momentum extended until the end of session, led by so-called 'China chips' which have close business ties with the mainland, dealers said. However, the daily trading volume fell to the lowest level so far this year, as many investors remained on the sidelines amid cautious sentiment, the dealers said. 'It is too early to say whether the market has pulled out of its recent downward trend, ' said Concord Securities analyst Alan Lin said. 'That's why many investors here preferred to watch rather than act.' Noting that the debt problems in the eurozone are far from over, Lin said Wall Street is likely to encounter further volatility and as a result 'the local bourse may be jittery.' Lin said the low turnover has made it hard for the market to overcome strong resistance after last week's heavy losses. 'I would say today's gains were just technical in nature, ' he added. Lin said investors should watch closely to see how foreign institutional investors respond to future fluctuations on Wall Street. If the U.S. markets start falling again after Friday's recovery, redemption pressure on foreign institutional investors will go up, paving the way an exodus of funds from Asia. China chips rebounded significantly on hopes that robust domestic demand on the mainland will continue to boost their bottom line, dealers said. Ruentex Industries gained 6.20 percent to reach NT$73.60, Wei-Chuan Foods rose 4.75 percent to NT$31.10, and Taiwan Cement increased 2.50 percent to NT$26.60. The flat panel display sector saw gains on anticipation of orders by a Sichuan purchasing delegation for products from major Taiwanese makers AU Optronics and Chimei-Innolux, whose shares rose 2.50 percent to NT$30.80 and 1.11 percent to NT$36.15, respectively. United Microelectronics Corp added 2.14 percent to finish at NT$14.30, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co closed 0.34 percent higher at NT$59.00.

With the economy emerging from a year-long recession, Taiwan's nominal unemployment rate fell 0.28 percentage points in April to 5.39 percent, marking the biggest month-on-month decline since October 1994, according to statistics released Monday. The total number of employed persons also increased to 10.41 million in April, an 18-month high that almost matched the peak level achieved before the 2008-2009 global financial crisis hit. On Monday, the Ministry of Education floated a 'four plus one' initiative that will allow universities to open one-year intensive courses for bachelor's degree holders to gain professional expertise that will enhance their employability. The plan, however, drew mixed reaction. The following are excerpts from the local media coverage of the topic: United Daily News: Although Taiwan's jobless rate has declined for eight months, its April figure remained higher than Hong Kong's 4.4 percent, South Korea's 3.7 percent and Singapore's 2.2 percent. With the advent of the commencement season, the unemployment rate may rise again in the coming months. Premier Wu Den-yih has directed relevant agencies to step up efforts to help find job opportunities for new college graduates. At an Executive Yuan employment promotion news conference on Monday, Deputy Education Minister Lin Tsung-ming said an estimated 150,000 new university graduates enter the job market each year. To meet technology companies' manpower demand and help humanities graduates acquire professional knowledge and skills, Lin said, the ministry plans to launch a program in September to cater to such needs. According to the plan, both new and old university graduates can apply to attend the program, which will focus on technology, including semiconductor-related knowledge and technologies. The study program will span three semesters in one year, Lin said, adding that those who complete all required courses will be conferred a bachelor's degree in the technology field. (May 25, 2010). China Times: Lin said local universities can decide on their own the threshold for admission to the 'four plus one, double degree' program and the number of applicants to be accepted. Under the program, Lin said, local universities or colleges will join forces with government-run vocational training centers and private corporations in designing courses and internship projects to meet practical demand. If the project is indeed launched in September, those who graduate this June will become the first group of beneficiaries, Lin said, noting that the program will also help reduce the impact on the job market of an influx of new graduates. As the project defies current regulations that require four years of study to qualify for a bachelor's degree, some university officials and educators questioned its appropriateness. Several activists even accused the government of attempting to lower the unemployment rate at the expense of the existing academic system. (May 25, 2010). Liberty Times: As Premier Wu has said on many occasions that he will step down from the premiership if the jobless rate does not fall below 5 percent by the end of this year, the executive branch has launched an all-out campaign to reduce unemployment. Among others, the Ministry of Education has come up with a controversial 'four plus one' program that some worry will undermine Taiwan's academic accreditation system. A Youth Labor Union-95 spokesman said the program is just designed to help manipulate the unemployment figure by retaining young people on campus. If local companies indeed need skilled employees, the spokesman said, they should invest more in talent cultivation instead of passing such costs to the government and students. (May 25, 2010)

Taiwan's share prices extended losses across the board in mid-morning trade Tuesday after Wall Street fell to a three-month low amid concerns about the global economic outlook, dealers said. As of 10:34 a.m., the weighted index had fallen 167.88 points, or 2.29 percent, to 7,154.85 on turnover of NT$37.90 billion (US$1.18 billion), after opening 1.15 percent lower. 'Investors rushed to dump their holdings on fears that debt problems in Europe will escalate and undermine the world's economic recovery, ' Taiwan International Securities analyst Michael Chiang said. Chiang said declines in other regional markets, such as Japan and South Korea, also dealt a blow to the local bourse as investors were concerned about the tense political standoff in the Korean Peninsula. 'Judging from the current downward trend, yesterday's gains were just technical,' Chiang said. 'The market has become technically weak. It is possible for the index to fall further,' Chiang said. As of mid-morning, Hon Hai Precision was down 3.39 percent to NT$128.00, United Microelectronics Corp had fallen 2.80 percent to NT$13.90 and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. had lost 1.32 percent to NT$58.40.

The exchange rates for major foreign currencies quoted in New Taiwan dollars by Chang Hwa Bank Tuesday. BUYING RATES SELLING RATES US dollar 32.001 32.401 Euro 39.12 40.12 Hong Kong dollar 4.077 4.177 Japanese yen 0.3545 0.3605 Australian dollar 26.35 26.55 Canadian dollar 30.07 30.27 Pound sterling 46.07 46.47 Singapore dollar 22.69 22.89 South African rand 4.033 4.133 Sweden krone 4.021 4.121 Swiss Franc 27.65 27.85 Thai baht 0.9755 1.0155 N. Zealand dollar 21.48 21.68 Chinese yuan 4.641 4.896 * Exchange rates for the US dollar in amounts less than US$10,000.

Taiwan's vistas and attractions are being featured in a television series in San Francisco to promote travel and tourism in Taiwan. The five-part series, which started Monday and introduces the country's diverse cultures and natural landscapes, is being broadcast on the CBS 5 program 'Eye on the Bay.' The series was produced by the station with financial support from Taiwan's Tourism Bureau, a model the bureau is using with increasing frequency to promote Taiwan in the United States. The Tourism Bureau hopes the series will help maintain the positive momentum seen in travel from the U.S. to Taiwan. Visitor arrivals from the U.S. rose 16 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2010, according to bureau statistics. Eye on the Bay is a magazine-style show, featuring regional travel, cuisine, and culture, and reaches up to 2.5 million viewers.

Taiwan's lower unemployment rate has helped make a great majority of local companies willing to hire fresh college graduates as the number of experienced job seekers falls, a job bank said Tuesday. 'About 90 percent of local companies we surveyed said they are willing to hire fresh college graduates, ' Jennifer Hong, the manager of Yes 123 Job Bank, said at a press briefing. 'It is difficult for these companies to hire the kind of people they want this year because the best talent has already been hired by other companies as the economy is improving, ' she said. The job bank conducted the survey of 195 companies from May 1-15. Hong's remarks came a day after statistics showed Taiwan's unemployment rate in April fell to 5.39 percent, a 15-month low that was attributed to a recent rebound in electronics exports. The April jobless rate was down 0.28 percentage points from March, marking the biggest single-month drop in nearly 15 years, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said Monday. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the DGBAS put the unemployment rate in April at 5.43 percent, marking the eighth consecutive monthly fall. The jobless rate is expected to rise in the coming three months as a new class of graduates enters the job market. The government plans to bring the jobless rate under 5 percent by the end of the year, and Premier Wu Den-yih has vowed to step down if the goal is not attained. At the press briefing, Hong said that 70 percent of local companies surveyed said that this year they will offer a similar starting salary as they did last year, at an average NT$22,624 (US$702). Last year's average marked a 16-year low following an average NT$23,972 in 1993, the job bank said, citing DGBAS figures. The job bank blamed the global financial crisis and unclear economic prospects for the recent fall in Taiwan's average starting salary. A salary sponsorship program launched by the government last year was also blamed for the starting salary decline. The government offered a monthly subsidy of NT$22,000 to local companies that hired job seekers who graduated in the previous three years, prompting many companies to give similar salaries.

International factors such as the European debt crisis and Korean Peninsula tension will not hobble Taiwan's economy for long, Vice President Vincent Siew said Tuesday. Share prices on the local bourse closed more than 3 percent lower that day over unfavorable international factors, including the new wave of saber-rattling between South and North Korea and the latest debt crisis plaguing southern European countries. 'All these are just short-term elements that will not adversely affect Taiwan's economy for long, ' said Siew, who was head of Taiwan's top economic policy planning agency -- the Council for Economic Planning and Development -- between 1993 and 1994. Siew told reporters that 'members of the European Union dare not let the euro fall freely until it collapses without implementing any rescue measures.' However, the debt crisis will demand a delay in the EU's schedule for suspending its economic stimulus measures that were put into force in the wake of the 2008 world financial meltdown, and could even lead to a reinstallment of the measures, he said. On the tension on the Korean Peninsula that intensified after an international civilian-military investigation team determined last week that a North Korean torpedo caused the massive blast that sank the South Korean vessel the Choenan March 26 in the Yellow Sea, killing 46 sailors, Siew predicted that it will soon 'cool down' after South Korean President Lee Myung-bak pledged to seek to address the tension through diplomatic channels. Turning to Taiwan's economic prospects, Siew said the country's per capita gross national product (GDP) has been stagnant at around NT$17,000 for some time and that 'it would be difficult for Taiwan to increase its per capita GDP if it fails to turn its economy from an OEM-manufacturing model to an innovative one.' In particular, he went on, Taiwan should regard China as a 'consumer market' rather than a 'world factory' in line with the latest wave of globalization and market liberalization that began following China's admission to the World Trade Organization in 2001. According to Siew, signing a proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China is a necessary choice that Taiwan has to make to cope with globalization. 'The China pact will put Taiwan in a formidable position, although it is not a panacea,' the vice president said. The administration of President Ma Ying-jeou hopes to sign the ECFA next month, but the bid is being strongly opposed by the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party, which argues that the pact would make Taiwan overly dependent on China and undermine the country's sovereignty.

A university in central Taiwan's Changhua County unveiled on Wednesday a new electric bicycle that overcomes the limitations of traditional bicycles and improves on the functions of electric models on the market. Shyu Jia-ming, a professor in Chienkuo Technology University's Department of Automation Engineering, said the electric bicycle still has pedals but is otherwise configured differently than traditional bikes, with motors on both wheels replacing the usual chain and derailleur. This new design means riders will no longer have to worry about loose or broken bicycle chains and enables them to recharge the rechargeable lithium iron phosphate batteries through a small generator as they pedal, unlike with most other electric models, Shyu said. Another unique feature is that riders can adjust speeds when they run the bicycle on electric power, said Shyu, who headed a team from the university's College of Engineering in developing the product. The new electric bicycle has incorporated other special functions that add to rider convenience and safety. The handle can be warmed up with a built-in control, and the LED headlight can be automatically adjusted according to the distance of objects in front of the bike. Also, a touchscreen control panel on the handlebar has a GPS system, speedometer, anti-theft device and a system to prevent drunk cyclists from riding. Shyu said the university has already registered several patents related to the electric bicycle, and he expects the product will be further improved by making it lighter and more polished once manufacturers gear up to sell it commercially.

Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said Wednesday it will take punitive action against anyone who makes false accusations of any kind against the Japanese coastguard, in the most recent controversy near the disputed Tiaoyutai Islands. CGA Vice Minister Wang Chung-yi said at a press conference that CGA inspectors have found no evidence that a Keelung-registered fishing boat Chuan Chia Fu had been rammed by Japanese coastguard vessels in waters near the Tiaoyutai Islands Tuesday. CGA inspectors boarded the fishing boat to inspect it immediately after its arrival at Keelung's Shenao harbor early Wednesday morning, after it was reported that the boat had been rammed by Japanese vessels near the Tiaoyutais, Wang said. According to Wang, the Chuan Chia Fu departed from Shenao Monday on a recreational fishing trip, carrying eight people -- its skipper, two foreign workers, three anglers and two activists who support Taiwan's claim to the Tiaoyutai Islands. One of the activists said Tuesday that the fishing boat was rammed three times by Japanese coastguard vessels after it entered the area near the uninhabited Tiaoyutai Islands, which are claimed by Taiwan, Japan and China. The activist, identified as Huang Hsih-lin, also accused the CGA of ignoring the boat's call for help when the incident occurred. However, Wang said the records show that when the CGA received phone calls from the fishing boat, it was 30 nautical miles off the Tiaoyutais, and 79 nautical miles outside Shenao harbor. At that time, there were three Japanese ships and two CGA vessels in the area, according to the records, which clearly show that the two Japanese coastguard vessels were about 10 nautical miles away from Chuan Chia Fu, as was the CGA vessel Mou Hsing, Wang said. He further said that Huang had called the CGA 118 hotline on a satellite phone but the connection failed. Huang then called a CGA official's cell phone and said the fishing boat was 'on its way to Shenao,' according to Wang. There was no mention of the boat being in any danger, he added. The CGA has launched an investigation into the allegations and anyone found making false statements will be brought to justice, he stressed. Meanwhile, the Taipei office of the Japan Interchange Association, which is in charge of Taiwan-Japan exchanges in the absence of diplomatic ties, said that the Japan coastguard vessels had maintained a safe distance from the Taiwanese boat. Not once did the coastguard attempt to run down the fishing boat or board it, the office said in a statement released earlier in the day. The reports in the Taiwan media that the Japanese coastguard had rammed the Chuan Chia Fu three times and had attempted twice to board it are inaccurate, the office said. The only action the Japanese coastguard vessels took was to order the Chuan Chia Fu to leave, as they said the boat was fishing illegally in Japan's territorial waters, the office said. The coastguard vessels kept a safe distance of at least 50 meters away from the Chuan Chia Fu at all times and there was no question of onboard inspections, according to the office.

Tainan Mayor Hsu Tain-tsair presided over a dragon boat eye-dotting ceremony Thursday to help 'awaken the spirits' of the boats ahead of the Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on June 16 this year. The 2010 Tainan City Dragon Boat Race Championship will be held on the Tainan Canal between Anyi Bridge and Chengtian Bridge from June 12-16, a Tainan City government official said. A total of 141 teams, including 13 international teams and 17 domestic teams from outside Tainan, will compete using 12 dragon boats, according to the official. Celebrations along the canal will include food stalls, art and cultural performances, he added. The Dragon Boat Festival, occurring on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, is a traditional holiday celebrated by racing boats and eating rice dumplings in memory of ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan (340 B.C.-278 B.C.).

Sprinter Michael Frater, a member of Jamaica's world record-setting 4x100-meters men's relay team in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, said Thursday that he would like to be the first athlete to break the 10-second mark in the men's 100-meters in Taiwan. Frater was among 15 top athletes, including four Olympic gold medalists, invited to attend the 2010 Chinese Taipei International Athletic Meet scheduled to take place May 28-29 in Taipei with over 600 athletes from 15 countries participating. The gold medalists are Frater, Polish shot putter Tomasz Majewski and New Zealand women's shot putter Valerie Vili -- all of whom won their golds in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Tim Mack, who won the men's pole vault in the 2004 Athens Olympics, will also compete. Responding to a reporter's question, Frater said he would love to be the first to break the 10-second mark in Taiwan, where Liu Yuan-kai and Tsai Mung-lin share the national record of 10.29 seconds. The athletes have a lighter year than usual this year, since there are no major championships this year after the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2009 World Championships in Berlin. Vili, who came to Taiwan after a Shanghai Diamond League athletics meet last week, said she will focus on the Diamond League this year. She said she was hoping for a good result this week in Taipei, before spending a week training in Singapore and competing in the next Diamond League series in New York. German discus thrower Robert Harting, who won gold in the World Championships last year and fourth place in Beijing, said the competition is a good opportunity for a reunion with his Taiwanese friend Chang Ming-huang, one of the best discus throwers in Taiwan, who uses the same coach as Harting -- Werner Goldmann -- when he is in Germany. The Chinese Taipei Track and Field Association (CTTFA) , the game's organizer, hopes that the competition's 'star power' will inspire local athletes and rejuvenate local development in the track and field category, which has suffered from lackluster performance for some time, said CTTFA Secretary-General Wang Ching-cheng.

Local government authorities will be tasked with investigating the suspected illegal hiring of foreign maids by certain social celebrities and wealthy families, a Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) official said Thursday. 'We will come up with a special investigation plan in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and the Department of Health (DOH) in the near future, ' said Tsai Meng-liang, a CLA section chief in charge of foreign labor affairs. The CLA will ask MOJ and DOH officials to help figure out how the illegal hiring is taking place and outline major indicators to evaluate the legality of hiring of foreign caregivers or foreign domestic helpers in the suspect cases, Tsai said. Once the blueprint is rounded out, he continued, the CLA will direct city and county labor offices to launch probes into suspect cases using the guidelines as a basis for their investigations. 'Members of the public are also welcome to offer tip-offs or information to local labor offices to facilitate the investigations,' Tsai added. Calls for the labor authorities to look into the suspected illegal employment of foreign caregivers and maids had arisen in recent days after several entertainers and socialites talked about their foreign maids on TV talk shows, some of whom even mocked their foreign maids. Under existing laws, only families with disabled or seriously ill members, or households with a third young child plus an elderly member, or those who meet certain stringent requirements are eligible to hire foreign caregivers or maids. Those caught hiring foreign caregivers or maids using false documents are liable to fines ranging between NT$300,000 and NT$1.5 million and having their permit to hire a foreign caregiver immediately revoked. Violators will also be prohibited from hiring a foreign helper for at least two years or even permanently. Those who ask their foreign caregivers or maids to do chores other than those specified or stated in their employment permit will be slapped with fines of NT$30,000 to NT$150,000. Those involved in such cases might also be charged with document forgery, CLA officials said.

The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said Thursday that it will lodge a protest with China against the practice by customs offices in southern China that requires imports from Taiwan to be labeled as coming from 'Taipei, China.' MAC Vice Chairman Liu Te-hsun said the protest will be delivered to the Chinese authorities via the Taipei-based Straits Exchange Foundation -- the intermediary body authorized to deal with China exchanges in the absence of official ties. According to media reports, Taiwanese goods shipped to southern parts of China that are not labeled either 'Taiwan, China' or 'Taipei, China,' have been refused entry. Liu said that according to an investigation by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, there has been only a limited number of such cases in the past. He said that under existing regulations, all Taiwanese exports to China should be labeled as coming from the 'Republic of China, ' 'Taiwan, ROC' or 'Taiwan. ' Liu said the government will ask the Chinese authorities to address the issue in order to avoid the country's sovereignty from being compromised.

Former National Security Council Secretary-General Su Chi played down Thursday the secret communication channels that exist between Taiwan and China, calling on the public to take what he described as the 'normal' situation in stride. Su pointed out that the era in which Taiwan refused to contact, negotiate or compromise with China is over. 'There needs to be communication, contact, negotiation and compromise between the two sides. In the process of such contact, there certainly are various channels, ' Su said when asked about the issue by Taiwanese reporters during a visit to San Francisco. Su had previously disclosed that there are around 20 channels of communication across the Taiwan Strait, including some that are clandestine. He explained Thursday that since the inauguration of President Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan has signed 12 agreements with China, each of which was the result of communication between related agencies of both sides. According to Su, the secret channels are 'not a big deal' and 'very normal in the international community in the 21st century.' He claimed that the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) also maintains dialogue channels with China, which he said was the reason why his disclosure of the government's secret ones did not draw much criticism from the DPP.

Taiwan's economic monitoring indicator flashed a red light in April for the fourth month in a row, which is normally an indication that the domestic economy remains overheated. It was the first time the economy has flashed a red light for four consecutive months on the five-color gauge designed by the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) to evaluate the country's economic performance. However, the recent global economic turbulence seems to have dampened consumer confidence, as the Consumer Confidence Index has dropped for the first time in eight months, according to a National Central University survey released Thursday. The following are excerpts from local media coverage of the issue: China Times: The overall economic performance score remained unchanged at 39 points, with the sub-index of direct and indirect finance turning yellow-blue after 16 months of showing blue, according to the latest CEPD monitoring data released Thursday. On the CEPD-designed five-color assessment scale, red means overheated; yellow- red signals an economy that is heating up; green shows stable growth; yellow- blue indicates a slowdown; and blue reflects a recession. Downplaying the unprecedented record of the benchmark monitoring indicator showing red for four consecutive months, CEPD Vice Chairman Hu Chung-ying attributed the result mainly to the fact that the comparison base in the same period of last year was extremely low amid the worldwide economic recession at that time. With the economy continuing to gain momentum and the low comparison base for last May, Hu said the probability of seeing a fifth red light for May is very high. However, he cautioned that the phenomenon should only be interpreted as a recovery from the year-long recession rather than being seen as a sign of an overheated economy. (May 28, 2010). Economic Daily News: Thanks to increased private investment, the sub-index of direct and indirect finance finally rose to yellow-blue after having received the lowest possible blue rating for more than a year, Hu said. Among proposed major private investment projects worth more than NT$10 billion each, 17 have already been launched, Hu said, adding that Cheng Shin Tire is also planning to a massive investment program in Changhua County. Nevertheless, Hu said, private consumption remained weak in April, while the unemployment rate was still high. 'Generally speaking, our economy is still far from overheating, given the sluggish domestic consumption and persistently high jobless rate, ' he said, adding that there is still a lot of room for improvement in terms of domestic demand. According to the latest CEPD report, the sub-index for wholesale, retail and food services lost one point, retreating back to a yellow-red rating from the red level of the previous month. (May 28, 2010). Commercial Times: The composite leading index stood at 109.6 points in April, up 0.4 percent from March, but its annualized six-month rate of change dropped 2.8 percentage points to 13.4 percent, resulting in a decline of the index for a third consecutive month. The figures were a signal that the pace of economic growth in the coming six months could gradually slow down, Hu said, adding that the momentum of growth in the second half of this year is not expected to be as strong as that of the first half. (May 28, 2010). United Daily News: National Central University's Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development said in a report Thursday that its consumer confidence index edged down 2.68 points to 76 this month, mainly because of a plunge of 15.6 points on the sub- index for equity investment in the near future. In addition, the report said, public confidence on purchasing durable goods over the next six months also decreased. 'The drop in these two indexes suggest that investors are uncertain on asset prices in the near future due to European debt crisis and credit tightening measures, ' said Hsu Chih-chiang, the center's director. (May 28, 2010).

The Legislative Yuan approved a revision to the Act Governing the Relations between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area Friday to allow local air carriers and shipping companies to wire revenues earned in China back to Taiwan. The revision was necessary because although two transport agreements covering air and sea carriers between Taiwan and China were signed in 2009 that permitted carriers on both sides to remit their revenues earned within the other's jurisdiction tax-free, it could not be implemented without the act's revision. Without the agreement, local carriers' revenues earned in China are subject to 3 percent business tax and 1.25 percent income tax. The problem is especially serious for air carriers that have accumulated more than NT$6.5 billion (US$203.08 million) in China-earned revenues since direct flights were launched between the two sides in July 2008. The inability to get their Chinese revenues back to Taiwan has seriously impeded the capital flow at home for these carriers, an executive of a leading local carrier said. Friday's revision will be effective retroactively, so that the affected carriers can remit any Chinese revenues earned prior to the revision.

The Justices of Constitutional Court rejected a petition Friday aimed at halting plans to execute the 40 inmates that remain on death row. 'Execution of the death row prisoners would not go against the two United Nations covenants that Taiwan has signed, ' the court said, referring to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights that passed Taiwan's legislature on March 31, 2009 and were signed into law by President Ma Ying-jeou the next month. The petition was filed by the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty on behalf of the 40 death row inmates. Taiwan executed four of the 44 prisoners on death row April 30, five weeks after former Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng resigned amid a political storm sparked by her statement that she would not sign any death warrants during her term. With the latest ruling by the Constitutional Court, local law experts said the Ministry of Justice could resume execution of the death row inmates at any time. Justice Minister Tseng Yung-fu, however, said in a symposium with prosecutors in the central Taiwan city of Chiayi earlier Friday that there is no timetable for executing the remaining death row prisoners. 'Since it's impossible for us to execute all the 40 inmates simultaneously, we will make those who committed the most brutal crimes the priority for execution,' Tseng said.

People who have the habit of frequently going to hospitals for outpatient services will be prevented from wasting health care resources under proposed measures to tackle abuse of the system, a health official said Friday. Starting June 1, people who visit hospitals for outpatient services more than 100 times a year will have their health insurance cards 'locked, ' said Chu Tung-kuang, a deputy convener of a task force on Taiwan's National Health Insurance (NHI) affairs under the Department of Health (DOH). That means these frequent hospital visitors will be targeted for an assistance program, under which they will be required to seek medical treatment at designated hospitals, to better keep track of how often they go to see the doctor, Chu said. The measure is part of new initiatives by the DOH to stem and control the increasing expenditures in Taiwan's NHI system. While the system enables Taiwanese people to receive affordable health care, it is deep in debt, partly because of misuse by members enrolled. People in the system only have to pay no more than US$15 for each doctor's visit, regardless of the number of medical tests they are given. Last year, 3,500 people in Taiwan each had more than 100 hospital visits that year, while 382 people went to hospitals more than 200 times. While some of these people may suffer from chronic illnesses, the frequency of their hospital visits is considered excessive. Other measures to counter the problems in the health care system include banning physicians found to be habitual offenders of NHI regulations from serving as contract doctors for the system. The DOH also plans to raise the ratio of hospital beds reserved for NHI patients to the total number of hospital beds in Taiwan. Under the new proposal, the number of NHI-covered beds at public hospitals must reach at least 75 percent, while that at non-public hospitals must be over 60 percent. Chu said many hospitals have expressed difficulty in carrying out the percentages. The DOH will hold a meeting in the near future to hear public opinion about the new measures before putting them into effect, Chu said.

Taiwan's bid for Schengen visa exemption is expected to be discussed in the European Parliament in June and will be granted as soon as the end of the year, a European parliamentarian familiar with the matter said Friday. 'My understanding is that they will be coming up in a short time ... I would expect that to happen in a few weeks, probably in June, ' said Simon Busuttil, spokesperson of the European People's Party on the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee, which is responsible for visa affairs. The European People's Party is the largest group in the European Parliament. The recommendation will have to go to the Council of Ministers after clearing the European Parliament to complete EU procedures before taking effect, he said. 'From past experience of visa liberalization for other countries, from the moment we get the recommendation till the moment we decide, you could be looking at around six months. If nothing goes wrong, this could be done by the end of the year, ' the Maltese parliamentarian said. Taiwan has been working on the proposal, which would grant Taiwanese travelers visa exemptions for 25 European countries under the Schengen Agreement, with the European Union (EU) since early last year. It had said earlier that the proposal would be passed before June. The delay was because a new European Commission entered into office in February and 'there must've been a lot of backlog in the pipeline, ' Busuttil said. The delay was not related to Taiwan's execution of four death row inmates April 30, which sparked condemnation from the EU, the parliamentarian said. Translation of the documents could also be behind the delay because all EU documents have to be available in 23 languages, said German parliamentarian Michael Gahler. The visa-exemption recommendation will have a technical component and a political component, Busuttil said. On the technical side, Taiwan has met all requirements, including security- related issues and biometric passports, he indicated. 'And we don't see any political obstacle in Taiwan's visa liberalization, ' he said.

Taiwanese officials expressed their concerns Friday about a string of deaths at a Foxconn Technology Group industrial park in China, saying the government should offer help and the public should show more understanding to the company. Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng said that aside from the government supporting and providing assistance to the Taiwan-based company, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, the company should also specify what kind of help it needs to solve the issue. Wang said media reports of the suicides at Foxconn plants in southern China might also cause similar incidents to occur at other Taiwanese businesses operating in China. 'Terry Gou's problem is the whole country's problem, ' Wang said, referring to the company's founder and chairman. Premier Wu Den-yih said the public should give greater encouragement to Gou, because of the important contribution he has made to the domestic and global economy. 'Gou has tremendous pressure at work as he has to manage nearly 800,000 employees,' Wu said. The Hon Hai Group is the world's largest contract maker of electronics, supplying the world's major electronic brands such as Apple Inc., Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. Members of a local labor union went to Hon Hai's headquarters in Taipei County to express their condolences over the deaths of the workers at the Foxconn complex and urged the company to review its management style. Lin Tzu-wen, the head of the National Federation of Independent Trade Unions, said electronics manufacturers should not treat their workers as machines.

Young people have been the worst victims of Taiwan's high unemployment rate and shrinking salaries under the leadership of President Ma Ying-jeou. Their displeasure was clearly reflected in the results of two recent surveys conducted by the Liberty Times and Taiwan Thinktank to mark the second anniversary of Ma's inauguration. Among the 20-29 age group, Ma's approval ratings stood at just 17.4 percent and 28.3 percent, respectively. Another cause of public dissatisfaction with the Ma administration is the soaring housing prices over the past two years. In Taipei City, in particular, young couples would need to save all their income for up to 30 years before they can afford to buy a home. Furthermore, Ma's policies are mostly in favor of business groups and rich people and rarely pay attention to wage and salary earners and common people. Among some of these examples are the corporate income tax reduction, the proposed economic cooperation framework agreement with China, and the second- generation National Health Insurance. As a result, the gap between the rich and the poor in Taiwan has widened noticeably over the past two years. Unless the Ma administration tackles the problem by adjusting its industrial policy and China-leaning government, it will be rejected by the Taiwanese people. (May 29, 2010)

Taichung Mayor Jason Hu said Saturday that a shooting incident the previous day had destroyed the city's efforts over the years to maintain social order, and he vowed to take serious steps to crack down on gangsters. Hu's remarks came after an unknown assailant shot a biotech company executive Wong Chi-nan, 39, and one of Oung's friends Lai Jung-cheng, 40, at the company's office in downtown Taichung. Wong was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital, while Lai was said to be in critical condition. Taichung police have initially concluded that the incident was a fight among gangsters and that Oung had been targeted probably because he had fixed a gambling game. 'Over the years, the city has made great efforts to deal with gangsters and their connection to the sex trade, ' Hu said. However, there have been a series of shooting incidents in the central Taiwan city in the past three months, he noted. 'I don't like that gangsters are making Taichung a place to settle their scores, ' the mayor said, adding that he will work with other cities and counties and the central government to declare war on gangsters.

President Ma Ying-jeou said Saturday that he will respect any decision made by the Ministry of Justice on the execution of death row inmates. He, however, also said that no decision has been made so far. The president was responding to a question from reporters about concerns that executions might affect Taiwan's bid to have its citizens included in Europe's Schengen visa-waiver program. Taiwan executed four death row inmates on April 30 -- the nation's first executions since December 2005 -- drawing condemnation from the European Union. On Friday, the Constitutional Court rejected a petition filed by an anti-death penalty group for a constitutional interpretation on the legality of the death penalty. The ruling was seen as clearing the way for the execution of the 40 inmates who remain on death row. Justice Minister Tseng Yung-fu said Friday that there is no timetable for the execution of the convicts.

Taiwan's national security authorities should assess and prepare for a worst- case scenario as tensions on the Korean Peninsula have risen since the sinking of a South Korean warship on March 26. The reaction of the Taiwanese people to the Korean situtation has been mixed. But the fact is that before any outbreak of war on the Korean Peninsula, global stock markets have already taken a nosedive. The world economy could sink into a new recession if a new Korean war erupts. It's time to stay cool-headed and on guard. With every key player around the world commenting on the situation, Taiwan should not pretend that nothing is happening out there. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has been dealing with the situation cool- headedly. He has demonstrated shrewd leadership by making rational judgements based on the advice of his aides. It reminded us that upon learning of the warship incident, President Ma Ying- jeou, who was on a state visit in the South Pacific, immediately convened a national security meeting and activated the national security mechanism. He also gave instructions for close monitoring of the situation in order to verify the information and to assess any developments. Ma's actions were panned by his critics as an overreaction. But the president was right. No one can afford to take national security matters lightly. (May 30, 2010)

The exchange rates for major foreign currencies quoted in New Taiwan dollars by Chang Hwa Bank Monday. BUYING RATES SELLING RATES US dollar 31.840 32.240 Euro 38.94 39.94 Hong Kong dollar 4.063 4.163 Japanese yen 0.3478 0.3538 Australian dollar 27.01 27.21 Canadian dollar 30.34 30.54 Pound sterling 46.12 46.52 Singapore dollar 22.74 22.94 South African rand 4.164 4.264 Sweden krone 4.048 4.148 Swiss Franc 27.62 27.82 Thai baht 0.9690 1.0090 N. Zealand dollar 21.65 21.85 Chinese yuan 4.617 4.872 * Exchange rates for the US dollar in amounts less than US$10,000.

The late U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, who advocated soft power, would have nodded in his tomb if he heard President Ma Ying-jeou saying Monday that those with power should know restraint when exercising it. Paraphrasing Jefferson's quote of 1815 that 'the less we use our power, the greater it will be, ' Ma made the comments during a meeting with the representatives of the Judges Association of the Republic of China (Taiwan) at the Presidential Office. He told them he has in the past expressed reservations about appeals from several civic groups to preside over judicial reforms by setting up a committee under his office. 'I don't want to make the Office of the President a supreme executive organization,' the president said. Under the Constitution, the president is chief of state, while the premier heads the government. Judicial reform such as the protection of human rights does not always require legislation or promulgation by the president. It can sometimes simply be a case of setting precedent, said the president, who holds a doctorate in law from Harvard. However, the president complained that his reluctance to interfere with the judiciary is often held up by critics as evidence that he is 'spineless.' 'My efforts to keep the judiciary free from interference have sometimes not gone down well with those who do not see eye to eye with me on the meaning of justice,' Ma observed. The president touted his administration's efforts to end investigators' illegal eavesdropping, adding that eavesdropping should only be conducted when absolutely necessary and legal. Ever since investigators have had to seek court approval to carry out eavesdropping, the numbers of eavesdropping applications have fallen significantly, he said. The president also promised to support the association's bid to host the 2011 annual conference of the International Association of Judges (IAJ). Noting that the IAJ is one of only a few international non-government organizations to which the country has been admitted under its official name of Republic of China, the president said Taiwan can use the occasion to enhance its international profile and showcase the independence of its judiciary.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will kick off a series of rallies in Kaohsiung on June 5 to promote a national referendum on a proposed trade pact with China, DPP spokesman Tsai Chi-chang said Monday. A 'made in Taiwan' market fair featuring locally made products and craftwork will be held at Glory Pier in the afternoon before the rally, Tsai said. DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen, elected DPP officials, academics and experts will review the current administration's performance as well as address the economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) in the evening, Tsai added. The events are expected to attract 10,000 participants, the spokesman said. The Executive Yuan's Referendum Review Committee is slated to meet on June 3 to decide whether a referendum proposal initiated by the DPP and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) conforms to legal requirements. Tsai Chi-chang expressed hope that members of the committee will ensure people's rights to express their will through a referendum and not to use political maneuvering or bureaucracy to hinder them. He added that because the ECFA is crucial and will lead to a large redistribution of wealth in Taiwan, the government should allow the public to participate in discussions and the decision-making process. In a protest against the government's plan to complete the signing of the proposed ECFA with China in June, the TSU, pro-independence groups and former Premier Frank Hsieh held anti-ECFA sit-ins and speeches around the country earlier in the month. The government says the proposed ECFA will boost economic growth in Taiwan and prevent the island from being marginalized, but critics have said it will lead to job losses and could make Taiwan too economically dependent on and politically vulnerable to China.

Premier Wu Den-yih re-affirmed Thursday the government's goal of making Children's Day a public holiday starting in 2011, a policy he said is aimed at highlighting the importance the government attaches to children. To ensure the April 4 holiday is added to the official calendar next year, the Ministry of the Interior should speed up its effort to amend the law governing the designation of commemorative days and holidays, Wu said. The premier raised the issue when the ministry delivered a report on the welfare of children and teenagers at a weekly Cabinet meeting. Wu said government agencies should work to boost the country's declining birth rate by encouraging young people to get married and creating an environment suitable for raising children. According to Wu, Taiwan's fertility rate dropped to 1.02 children per woman in 2009 -- the lowest level worldwide. The trend in which Taiwanese people give birth to less children will decrease the country's labor force, increase the dependency ratio and tilt the balance of resource distribution between generations, which will in turn undermine the country's competitiveness, Wu said.

The U.S. dollar lost ground against the New Taiwan dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange Thursday, dropping NT$0.031 to close at NT$31.788. A total of US$760 million changed hands during the trading session. The U.S. dollar opened at the day's high of NT$31.820, and dropped to 31.728 before rebounding.

Eight Taiwanese citizens have applied to take part in a space journey at a cost of US$200,000 per person, which is expected to create a fad for space travel if they return safely to Taiwan, a local travel agency said Thursday. Virgin Galactic, a space tourism operator affiliated with billionaire Richard Branson's London-based Virgin Group, which launched the travel plan initiative, has collected fares from more than 330 aspiring amateur astronauts who are willing to spend big money to experience about six minutes of suborbital spaceflight, according to Royal China Express, the Taiwan agent for Virgin Galactic. The company's suborbital spaceship SpaceShipOne will be airlifted into the skies for its maiden flight at the end of this year after receiving approval from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, according to the local travel agency. Six of the eight aspiring space travelers, including a surgeon, engineers at the Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park and businessmen, have already paid their fares, while a couple operating a jewelry business who filed applications earlier that day were scheduled to pay their fares next week in the hope of getting a fairytale journey into outer space in August 2011, the travel agency said. Another 10 people have also expressed interest in experiencing the trip if it is proved safe, it added.

A Taiwanese fishing boat managed to escape to safety after it was attacked and chased by pirates in waters near Somalia in eastern Africa early Thursday morning, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The 'Juimanfa, ' a Donggang-based lone-line fishing boat, was in waters 395 miles southeast of Somalia's Cape Guardafui when it was attacked by pirates on cutters released from a bigger boat disguised as a Taiwanese vessel around the early hours, Chen Shih-liang, director of the ministry's African Affairs, said in a press conference. Pirates from the cutters fired 50 to 60 rounds of bullets, injuring an Indonesian crew member in his leg. The injured crewman is now in stable condition although the bullet remains inside his leg, Chen said, quoting Juimanfa's skipper Huang Kun-jui. The 14-men crew of the Taiwanese fishing boat include two Taiwanese and 12 Indonesians. After sailing at full speed for three hours, Juimanfa was able to get rid of the pirates who had chased it, Chen said, adding that the Taiwanese vessel's radar screen shows no sign of any other boat within 12 miles. The fishing boat is now headed towards the Maldives and will take less then 100 hours to reach there. Chen said the ministry has asked the International Maritime Bureau under the London-based International Maritime Organization to help inform other vessels in the waters of the incident and ask them to be on alert. In addition, Taiwan's fishery commissioners in the Indian Ocean area have asked the Maldives to provide medical assistance to the injured crewman after the boat's arrival. Meanwhile, the wife of the captain of another Taiwan long-liner operating on the waters when the incident occurred, 'Zechuhtsai', asked the Liuqiu Fishermen's Association, with which it is registered, for help earlier in the day after losing contact with her husband. A Taiwanese fishing boat, 'Win Far No. 161' was released in early February after its owner paid an unannounced amount of ransom to Somalia pirates who had kidnapped the ship and held its crew captive since April 6 last year.

Taiwan and China failed to exchange their formal 'early harvest lists' Thursday at the end of the second round of talks on a proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) between the two sides. 'Although both sides screened listed items and exchanged industry information one by one, and reached consensus on most of the items, we did not exchange the `early harvest lists, '' Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Liang Kuo-shin told a news conference after the talks, which kicked off a day earlier at a resort in Taoyuan County near Taipei. The 'early harvest lists' refer to lists of goods and services that will enjoy preferential or zero tariffs in future cross-Taiwan Strait trade -- a critical part of the ECFA. 'In the talks, we tried to get what we wanted and keep what we wanted to keep, ' he said, adding that the Chinese side agreed not to include an opening of Chinese labor and more agricultural products on its 'early harvest list' so as not to impact Taiwan's small businesses. According to Liang, progress was made in this round of negotiations as the two sides forged common ground on the 'early harvest lists' and on the text of the planned ECFA, as well as on regulations on the labeling of product origin. 'Both agreed to make the most practical and professional arrangements by fully considering the characteristics of cross-strait trade,' he said. Huang Chih-peng, director-general of the Bureau of Foreign Trade and Taiwan's chief delegate at the talks, said both sides held comprehensive discussions and exchanged opinions on the listed items. He also urged China to consider allowing some Taiwanese agricultural and fishing exports to enter the Chinese market duty-free and the Chinese delegates promised to study the issue after returning home. The Taipei-based Straits Exchange Foundation, which organized the just-concluded talks along with its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, said both sides agreed to step up the pace in clinching an ECFA and to hold a third round of negotiations in China. The first round of talks was held in Beijing in January. Tang Wei, head of the Department of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau under China's Ministry of Commerce, who led the Chinese delegation at the negotiations, said that 'we have not reached a final agreement on the `early harvest program'' and that 'we will continue our discussions in the next round of negotiations.' 'The two sides have conducted negotiations on the opening of a small number of listed items and a few industries, ' he pointed out. But he added 'the situation between Taiwan and China means we are still far from practicing liberalized trade.' Echoing Liang's view, Tang, however, added that 'unlimited communication and exchanges of ideas have helped us forge common ground and make noticeable progress.' 'China will do its best to mitigate the impact of the ECFA on Taiwan's vulnerable industries and grassroots people,' he went on. 'We fully understand that the sizes and competitiveness of industries on both sides must be taken into account when negotiating the final `early harvest lists,'' he said.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) said Thursday that a second five-year, NT$50 billion (US$1.58 billion) project aimed at encouraging excellence among local universities will be launched in 2011, building on the success of the previous phase. The first phase of the project covered the period from 2005 to 2009, with 12 universities awarded funding. During the period, the investment funneled by these universities in industrial collaboration increased by NT$4.4 billion, the admissions of disadvantaged students rose by 160 percent, the number of international students enrolled in degree programs jumped by 41 percent, and the number of internationally published research papers was up 51 percent, the MOE said. In terms of the performance in internationalization, the number of students going overseas for student exchange programs increased by 106.08 percent, from 625 in 2004 to 1,288 in 2009. While the number of courses taught entirely in English for foreign students rose by 103.63 percent, from 2,013 to 4,099, the number of foreign formal and exchange students was up 90.21 percent, from 3,075 people to 5,849 people. In terms of research results, the number of frequently cited papers published in the last decade jumped by 109.52 percent, from 294 pieces to 616 pieces. The number of full-time teachers who are members of research institutes or important international societies grew by 107.35 percent, from, 245 to 508. Meanwhile, the number of excellent teachers and research fellows recruited soared by 334 percent, from 182 to 1,276. In terms of industrial collaboration, the sponsorship provided by the business sector for collaboration projects increased by 16.15 percent, the revenue from intellectual property rights surged by 165.58 percent, and the number of patents obtained and new inventions rose by 77.34 percent, according to the MOE.

The U.S. dollar lost ground against the New Taiwan dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange Friday, dropping NT$0.029 to close at NT$31.759. A total of US$ 632 million changed hands during the trading session. The U.S. dollar opened at the day's high of NT$31.788, and fell to a low of NT$31.714 before rebounding.

Vice Premier Eric Liluan Chu stressed the importance of execution, safety and quality Friday when inspecting construction work related to a planned aviation park in northern Taiwan's Taoyuan County. Chu heard briefings by officials about the improvement work being carried out at Terminal One of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and about the ongoing construction of the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system's Linkou line linking Taipei with the country's largest airport. According to Transportation Ministry officials, the renovation of the airport's shabby terminal is slated for completion in 2011, while construction of the MRT's Linkou line, now 41 percent complete instead of the 28 percent that had been originally projected, is also slated to wrap up in 2012. Taipei Magistrate Chou Hsi-wei accompanied Chu during the inspection of a construction site on the Linkou line and both expressed hope that completion of the line will boost development in the areas adjacent to the airport. It was their first encounter since Chou forswore his bid to seek a second term as magistrate in late February at a time when Chu was widely reported as the favored candidate to be picked by the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) to run in the year-end mayoral elections in Xinbei City (upgraded from Taipei County into one of five special municipalities). However, Chu was reluctant to answer reporters' questions related to the election campaign, while Chou explained that relevant issues will be made public after the KMT officially fields Chu as its candidate. Meanwhile that day, Lin Chia-long of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) , who is seeking the party's nomination to take part in the mayoral race in Taichung, said he will continue moving toward his goal despite reports that the party's Frank Hsieh, a former premier, wants to run there. Incumbent Taichung Mayor Jason Hu, a heavyweight of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) who has made known his intention to vie for the post of Taichung mayor, declined to comment on the speculation. 'This is a matter for the DPP and I am not in a position to talk about it,' he said.

The first debate on a proposed Taiwan-China economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) will be televised April 5 by a local cable TV station. Huang Chih-peng, director-general of the Bureau of Foreign Trade, said that to his knowledge, he will team up with Kuomintang (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao against Chuang Suo-hang and Julian Kuo, both former lawmakers of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), in the debate to be broadcast by CtiTV. 'The debate slated for next Monday is a prelude to the anticipated debate on the ECFA between President Ma Ying-jeou and DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen,' Huang said. Huang was Taiwan's chief negotiator in the second round of cross-Taiwan Strait negotiations on the ECFA, which wrapped up Thursday. Although no major breakthrough was made on the pact's 'early harvest' lists, which will include the items that will immediately benefit from tariff reductions or exemptions, the two sides forged common ground on the text of the planned ECFA, as well as on regulations covering the labeling of product origin. Delegates from the two sides promised that they will continue negotiations in the next round of talks in China in May or June and hoped that the ECFA could be clinched by that time. The DPP is strongly opposed to the pact, fearing that an influx of cheap Chinese goods could hurt local companies and that it would undermine Taiwan's sovereignty. The president said Friday that Taiwan and China will decide which items will be listed in their 'early harvest program' in the third round of ECFA talks. The major purpose of the trade deal with China is to set up an institutionalized mechanism for cross-strait trade and to help Taiwan push for free trade agreements (FTAs) with other countries and a role in East Asia's economic integration, Ma said. 'As China is Taiwan's largest trade partner, it is right to start by signing a trade pact with China, ' the president reiterated while meeting at the Presidential Office with the delegation that will represent Taiwan at the Boao Forum. Commenting on the possible impact of the ECFA on Taiwan's industries, Ma said Taiwan would not engage in wishful thinking, and he realized that if cheap Chinese goods entered Taiwan's market, they would have an adverse impact on domestic demand-oriented sectors. 'The Chinese side promised to do its best to avoid harming Taiwan's vulnerable businesses when putting forth its early harvest list, ' he said. Meanwhile, Ma will attend a seminar in Yunlin County Saturday to explain ECFA- related issues to local farmers. Yunlin is an agricultural-based county in central-south Taiwan where the DPP enjoys widespread support. A second ECFA forum led by the president will be held in Kaohsiung April 10.

Taiwan's National Central Library has donated nearly 400 books to the C.V. Starr East Asian Library of Columbia University in the United States, according to a statement released by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in New York Friday. The donation was made at the Columbia library Friday and was witnessed by over 50 teachers and students from the university's Weatherhead East Asian Institute, including the institute's director, Myron Cohen, Friday afternoon eastern time. Damon Jaggers, associate university librarian for collections and services at Columbia University, was also in attendance. The East Asian Library's acting-director, Ria Koopmans-de Bruijn, said that the university has maintained friendly relations with the Republic of China and that aside from its exchanges with the National Central Library, its has also exchanged books and documents preserved on microfilm with Taiwan's Academia Sinica. New York TECO Director-General Andrew Kao said he believes the books will help scholars and students in the university gain knowledge of Taiwan and its main issues and promote the visibility of Taiwanese authors. Cohen said that with his institute set to offer courses on Taiwan studies next semester, Friday's book donations will prove useful. The institute, he said, will also hold a seminar, titled 'Taiwan in the 21st Century,' in Taiwan on June 13. The over-100-year-old C.V. Starr East Asian Library has one of the biggest collections of books from East Asia of any U.S. library. It has nearly 870,000 volumes in Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Tibetan.

Two Taiwanese choreographers took second and third place in the 3rd Cross Connection Ballet International Choreography Competition (CCBC) in Copenhagen, Denmark on April 2. Huang Yi's 'Whisper' and Chou Shu-yi's solo 'Start with the Body' beat out all but one of some 140 competitors from around the world who took part in the event. Chou won the Sadler's Wells award last year with a performance titled '1875 Raveland Bolero' at the renowned London dance theater. Huang left a message on Facebook after taking second place in which he thanked everyone for their help and blessings. He said he especially wanted to dedicate his honor to choreographer Lo Man Fei, a renowned dancer who died in 2006. Both Chou and Huang received support from the Lo Man Fei Dance Fund, a program to support young talent in dance related fields. The CCBC held the competition on April 2, and it will honor the winning performances at a Gala event on Saturday night.

Premier Wu Den-yih again pushed Sunday for speedy construction of permanent housing for people displaced by Typhoon Morakot last August. 'We hope all the permanent houses now under construction can be completed before the end of July so that Morakot victims will be resettled in those houses by the storm's first anniversary, ' Wu said while inspecting a housing construction project on Majia Farm in southern Taiwan's Pingtung County. The Majia housing project will accommodate aboriginal households from the county's Haocha and Dashe villages, both of which were destroyed by Morakot- triggered floodwaters and mudslides. The premier expressed his gratitude for the cooperation of Majia residents in providing their land for the housing project and for the sponsorship of Christian charity World Vision Taiwan. The charity's executive director, Hank Du, said that 319 households have been approved for settlement in the Majia Farm housing project to date. According to the premier, only those who filed applications before March 15 were eligible to be resettled in the permanent houses to be built there. A model house has been completed, while other parts of the 30-hectare land are being prepared for construction, Du said. Though completing construction of more than 300 houses at a high quality level in four months is a big challenge for his organization, Du said his organization will do its utmost to live up to the premier's expectations. Typhoon survivors from Haucha and Dashe villages will be hired to build their new homes under an 'employment substitution relief' program, Du said, and the new houses will be environmentally friendly buildings, with each unit expected to help reduce carbon emissions by 40 tons per year. In addition to residential houses, nine churches and one elementary school will be built on Majia Farm. A center dedicated to developing local agricultural specialties will also be established to help residents start up new businesses and earn a living on their own in the future.

A series of activities will be held in Japan to celebrate the Republic of China's 100th founding anniversary next year, John Feng, Taiwan's top representative in Japan, said Sunday. Feng said activities will be organized to commemorate the country's founding in Japan because the seeds of the 1911 Revolution, which led to the collapse of the Qing Dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China, were planted in Japan by the nation's founding father, Dr. Sun Yat-sen. He made the remarks in a speech delivered at the opening of the 44th clan meeting of the Chung Cheng Association in Tokyo, a Hakka group established in Japan in 1963. About 400 people, including 12 legislators and an official in charge of Hakka affairs from Taiwan and a number of Japanese parliamentarians, attended the one- day meeting, which took place at a hotel in Tokyo.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and his family arrived in Taiwan Monday for a four-day private visit. Upon his arrival at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Aso was greeted by John Feng, Taiwan's representative to Tokyo, and Tadashi Imai, Japan's representative to Taipei. Aso was seen chatting animatedly with Feng, but did not respond to press inquiries about his itinerary in Taiwan, nor did he make any public speeches. He shook hands with some Japanese visitors at the airport. Accompanied by his wife, daughter and personal aides, Aso left the airport for Taipei shortly after his arrival. According to a report carried in the Monday edition of the Japanese Sankei Shimbun, Aso is visiting Taiwan at the invitation of Taiwanese friends. The report quoted Aso as having told the Japanese Diet that during his visit he would look at Taiwan's political development. This is Aso's first trip to Taiwan since he stepped down as premier last September after his party lost a parliamentary election to the Democratic Party of Japan in August 2009. Aso, who served as Japan's prime minister from September 2008 through September 2009, last visited Taiwan in April 2003 in his capacity as head of the then- ruling Liberal Democratic Party's policy coordination council. During that visit, he attended a seminar with politicians from Taiwan's then-ruling Democratic Progressive Party. Only two other retired Japanese prime ministers have ever visited Taiwan. The late Japanese Prime Minister Take Fukuda visited Taiwan in March 1992, and former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori visited Taiwan in December 2003 and again in November 2006.

President Ma Ying-jeou will meet privately with former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, who arrived Monday in Taiwan on a four-day private visit, political sources said. Aso, accompanied by his wife, daughter and personal aides, is making his first trip to Taiwan since he stepped down as premier last September after his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lost a parliamentary election a month earlier to the Democratic Party of Japan. Although the LDP is no longer in power, sources said Aso still holds enormous sway in the Japanese political arena. His visit to Taiwan has drawn considerable attention because many believe he can help bridge Taipei-Tokyo relations. Given his sensitive status as a retired prime minister and the absence of diplomatic ties between Taiwan and Japan, Aso kept a low profile after arriving Monday. He did not respond to press inquiries about his itinerary in Taiwan and did not make any public comments. He was seen chatting animatedly with John Feng, Taiwan's representative to Japan, who returned to Taipei earlier in the day to welcome Aso at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. Neither the Presidential Office nor the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would confirm that Ma will meet Aso during the latter's visit. Sources have said, however, that Aso will not only meet with Ma but also with other Taiwanese political heavyweights, including Legislative Speaker Wang Jin- pyng. Wang, who has maintained close ties with the Japanese political community, will invite Aso to dinner Wednesday, and ruling Kuomintang legislators with Japanese educational backgrounds will also be present. Aso is visiting Taiwan at the invitation of Chinatrust Group Chairman Jeffrey Koo. Aso, who served as Japan's prime minister from September 2008 through September 2009, last visited Taiwan in April 2003 in his capacity as head of the then- ruling LDP's policy coordination council. During that visit, he attended a seminar with politicians from Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party, which held power at the time. Only two other retired Japanese prime ministers have visited Taiwan. Takeo Fukuda visited Taiwan in March 1992 and Yoshiro Mori visited Taiwan in December 2003 and again in November 2006.

President Ma Ying-jeou will meet privately with former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, who arrived Monday in Taiwan on a four-day private visit, political sources said. Aso, accompanied by his wife, daughter and personal aides, is making his first trip to Taiwan since he stepped down as premier last September after his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lost a parliamentary election a month earlier to the Democratic Party of Japan. Although the LDP is no longer in power, sources said Aso still holds enormous sway in the Japanese political arena. His visit to Taiwan has drawn considerable attention because many believe he can help bridge Taipei-Tokyo relations. Given his sensitive status as a retired prime minister and the absence of diplomatic ties between Taiwan and Japan, Aso kept a low profile after arriving Monday. He did not respond to press inquiries about his itinerary in Taiwan and did not make any public comments. He was seen chatting animatedly with John Feng, Taiwan's representative to Japan, who returned to Taipei earlier in the day to welcome Aso at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. Neither the Presidential Office nor the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would confirm that Ma will meet Aso during the latter's visit. Sources have said, however, that Aso will not only meet with Ma but also with other Taiwanese political heavyweights, including Legislative Speaker Wang Jin- pyng. Wang, who has maintained close ties with the Japanese political community, will invite Aso to dinner Wednesday, and ruling Kuomintang legislators with Japanese educational backgrounds will also be present. Aso is visiting Taiwan at the invitation of Chinatrust Group Chairman Jeffrey Koo. Aso, who served as Japan's prime minister from September 2008 through September 2009, last visited Taiwan in April 2003 in his capacity as head of the then- ruling LDP's policy coordination council. During that visit, he attended a seminar with politicians from Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party, which held power at the time. Only two other retired Japanese prime ministers have visited Taiwan. Takeo Fukuda visited Taiwan in March 1992 and Yoshiro Mori visited Taiwan in December 2003 and again in November 2006.

hold public opinion polls in four other municipalities 8. President Ma to hold video conference with Harvard University faculty 9. The number of people visiting Kengting music festival drops 10. TV debate on ECFA

President Ma Ying-jeou will address Harvard faculty and students via video conference from Taipei Tuesday, it was announced. Ma will first deliver a 20-minute address covering a variety of issues, Presidential Office sources said Monday. The sources said Ma's wide-ranging speech will begin with a look back at his time at Harvard before moving on to describe Taiwan's values of democracy and freedom. He will then discuss Taiwan's economic recovery, its programs to care for the underprivileged, its international relations, and especially foreign aid, and finally cross-Taiwan Strait ties. After delivering his address, the president will exchange views with members of Harvard's faculty and student body. The video conference will link Ma with the university's Fairbank Center for China Studies and will take place at 7:30 a.m. local time. Accompanying the president will be Presidential Office Secretary-General Liao Liou-yi, National Security Council Secretary-General Hu Wei-jen, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Shen Lyushun and Government Information Office Minister Johnny Chiang. Former National Security Council Secretary-General Su Chi, who is currently in the U.S., will also attend the video conference on the Harvard side, and will remain after the end of the one-hour linkage to preside over a continuation of the conference and exchange views with the U.S. scholars. Su said that both sides would touch on Taiwan-U.S. relations, cross-strait relations and a proposed cross-Taiwan Strait economic cooperation framework agreement.

The Ministry of National Defense (MND) denied a media report Monday that each military officer could get a 10 percent pay raise after the preferential tax treatment given to military personnel is eliminated, as early as next year. Military members and school teachers have long been exempt from paying taxes on their income, but the Apple Daily reported that the Executive Yuan is expected to abolish the tax break next year. The report said that to compensate military personnel for the tax policy change, the MND has finalized a scheme to raise the salaries of all service members, based on the principle of raising pay by the same amount levied in income taxes. As a result, the report said, each military officer could get an estimated 10 percent or even higher pay raise. The MND said in a statement Monday, however, that the report was not factual because the ministry has yet to finalize any salary adjustment scheme. According to an Executive Yuan policy directive passed in 2002, the MND said it will draft a salary adjustment package in line with the principle of no reductions in service members' income after the Legislative Yuan completes legal amendments and sets a date for enforcement of the new taxation rules. The draft package of income tax amendments is still pending legislative approval. Meanwhile, a report carried in the Monday edition of the China Times said the government's personnel expenditure will increase by at least NT$24 billion annually after an all-volunteer military service system takes effect in 2014. Based on that estimate, the country's more than 5 million households that file taxes will pay an additional NT$4,000 in income tax per year to help finance the all-volunteer system, the report said. Responding to the report, the MND said the government's personnel expenditures will increase in a steady manner based on the military's well-devised recruitment system. Moreover, the all-volunteer service system will help reduce training and operational costs because service members will stay longer in the military and thus become more adept at operating weaponary systems. Such a reduction will help offset increases in personnel expenditure, the ministry argued.

Taiwan pocketed three gold medals and one silver in the Fourth World Woodball Championship that concluded Sunday in Bangkok, Thailand, sources from the Chinese Taipei Woodball Association said Tuesday. Taiwan won the women's group category title for the fourth consecutive championship, the association said. Thailand won second place, followed by Hong Kong. The host team took the men's group title, with Taiwan taking silver and Hong Kong in third place. Chiang Fang-yu and Chen Chih-fu won the other two golds in the women's and men's individual events, respectively. Around 200 players from 18 countries competed in this year's championships, which took place March 31-April 4. Woodball is a relatively recent sport created by Wong Ming-hui, a former chairman of the Chinese Taipei Woodball Association, in which players use mallets to hit a ball through a series of gates. The game can be played on grass, sand or indoors. The World Woodball Championships are held once every two years.

Robert Horry, one of only nine players to have won at least seven National Basketball Association (NBA) championships, is scheduled to visit Taiwan next week for the official launch of the NBA's traditional Chinese character Web site, organizers said Wednesday. Horry, who collected one more championship ring in his 17-year NBA career (1992-2008) than Michael Jordan, will visit Taiwan from April 14-16 and attend the launching ceremony of the NBA.com/Taiwan Web site, a collaboration of local sports Web site Pixnet and the NBA, Pixnet announced in a statement. According to Pixnet, basketball-crazy Taiwan at one point ranked third, behind the U.S. and Canada, in visitors to the NBA's official Web site. One of only three players to win consecutive NBA championships with two different teams -- the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Lakers -- Horry was best known for his clutch three-point shooting in the playoffs, earning him the nickname 'Big Shot Bob.' The 208-centimeter sweet-shooting forward still holds the record for most career three-pointers made in the NBA Finals and is second on the all-time list for three-pointers made in the playoffs. Hong Kong-based media company TOM Group Limited signed a four-year deal with the NBA in 2008 for the rights to operate the NBA Web site in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Taiwanese fans complained, however, that the company merely converted text in simplified Chinese characters, used in China, into traditional Chinese characters for the Taiwanese audience, neglecting the differences in basketball terms and the transliteration of player names between Taiwan and China.

Taiwanese golfer Yani Tseng has vaulted to second in the women's world golf rankings after winning the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the first major tournament of the season, leaving her in good position to make a run at dethroning long-time world No. 1 Lorena Ochoa. Tseng, who started last week ranked sixth, regained the spot she had occupied between Nov. 24, 2008 and Aug. 31, 2009 after her one-shot victory in the Kraft Nabisco. She has not been ranked outside the top six since winning her first major, the LPGA Championship, in June 2008. The rankings are determined by a complicated formula weighting players' performances over the past 104 weeks on all major women's professional golf tours around the world. Points earned based on tournament finishes are divided by tournaments played to give a points average used to rank the players. Anything over a 10 is considered phenomenal. Ochoa who has reigned as the top player in woman 's golf for 155 weeks, averaged over 13 for much of 2009, far outdistancing Tseng and other challengers. Tseng had fallen as far as sixth in the rankings after suffering through an inconsistent second half of 2009, but her recent surge (she also won the Australian Women's Open in mid-March) and Ochoa's inability to reproduce her incredible run between 2006-2008 have pulled the two much closer. Ochoa, who won only three events in 2009 after averaging seven tour wins per year the previous three years and who has not won a major in two years, has grown vulnerable at the top, falling to an average of 9.34, only 0.53 ahead of Tseng' s 8.81. Another LPGA tournament win by Tseng could end Ochoa's reign, but Tseng herself has to be careful about maintaining her own standing as another three top players -- Korea's Jiyai Shin, Norway's Suzann Pettersen, and Japan's Ai Miyazato -- are fairly closely bunched behind the 21-year-old Taiwanese. Aside from soaring up the world rankings, Tseng catapulted to the top of other major lists by winning this past weekend's major in Rancho Mirage, California. Her US$300,000 first prize made her the leading prize money winner on the LPGA Tour after its first four events of the year. She also moved into the top spot in the standings for the highly coveted LPGA Player of the Year award, ahead of Miyazato and Pettersen.

There have been two overseas-acquired cases of measles in Taiwan since the start of this year, and both patients were from Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan, government agencies reported Wednesday. The two patients, who were infected in a Southeast Asian country, have both recovered, the county's health bureau said. Another case of German measles was also found in Kaohsiung County in late February and the patient has also recovered, local health officials said, urging the public to be careful when traveling to China or Southeast Asian countries. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) under the Cabinet-level Department of Health on Wednesday confirmed the imported cases of measles. The individuals are a 26-year-old Vietnamese woman residing in Kaohsiung County and her 15-month-old baby girl, CDC deputy director-general Lin Ting said. The woman, who is married to a Taiwanese man, and her child were found to have contracted the infectious disease in Vietnam in late March. They developed fever, rashes and Koplik spots -- symptoms of measles -- more than a week ago, and are receiving treatment at a hospital, Lin said. Neither the woman nor her baby have inoculation records, he added. According to Lin, no one else in the home has so far developed any symptoms of measles, but they are being closely monitored by health authorities. In the last three years, a total of 19 cases of overseas-acquired measles -- nine from Vietnam, seven from China, and one each from India, Japan and Thailand -- have been found in Taiwan, Lin reported. He urged that the public, especially children, get vaccinated against the disease.

BUYING RATES SELLING RATES US dollar 31.377 31.777 Euro 41.60 42.60 Hong Kong dollar 4.018 4.118 Japanese yen 0.3353 0.3413 Australian dollar 29.15 29.35 Canadian dollar 31.32 31.52 Pound sterling 47.90 48.30 Singapore dollar 22.51 22.71 South African rand 4.283 4.383 Sweden krone 4.296 4.396 Swiss Franc 29.27 29.47 Thai baht 0.9605 1.0005 N. Zealand dollar 22.21 22.41 Chinese yuan 4.486 4.716 * Exchange rates for the US dollar in amounts less than US$10,000.

Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der has recently drawn wide-ranging criticism for his improper remarks. In one incident, he contended that 'the Republic of China has the best finances' in the world, dismissing the belief that government finances are worsening as a 'mistaken notion.' Lee argued that the government's fiscal deficit has stemmed from the capital budget and that there is surplus on the current budget every year. He also said that the debt levels and flows of the government have not violated the ceiling stipulated in the Public Debt Act. However, we must point out that a correct assessment should derive from professional knowledge and training, not from evasion and the concealment of truths. First, if what the minister said is correct, why has every prominent international credit rating agency downgraded Taiwan's sovereign credit rating in recent years? Second, if what the minister said is correct, then Taiwan has never suffered from a budget deficit since the Budget Act was in place, because the law stipulates that the government's current revenue must be higher than current expenditure. Lee's budget notions are mainly based on corporate finance, which believes that debts incurred for capital investment do not worsen a company's fiscal status, because there has not been any change to its 'net worth.' However, unlike investment projects by private businesses, public construction projects are not 'self-liquidating.' Thus, government should be more careful and conservative about its finances than private businesses. As the country's financier, Lee should know these economic concepts. His claim that government debt has not exceeded the legal limit is even more unacceptable to the well-informed. The fact that government finances have not broken the law does not mean there is no problem or crisis. Furthermore, the government has accumulated hundreds of billions in debt that 'according to law' are excluded from the calculation of the debt ceiling. (April 8, 2010)

Empty rhetoric, bluffs and lies were abound when President Ma Ying-jeou discussed his policy in a recent video conference with Harvard University faculty and students. Obviously, Ma was attempting to win international support to try to reverse the decline in his approval ratings. However, since Ma has failed to convince his own people, how could he fool those well-trained foreign experts? In terms of economy, Ma told the Harvard audience that his administration has successfully led Taiwan out of the latest economic downturn. But the fact is that even if Taiwan achieves 4.72 percent economic growth this year as projected by Ma, the performance would still be the worst among the 'four little dragons' in Asia. The unemployment rate of 5.7 percent recorded in February, meanwhile, is the highest among the four. Ma also said that 'agreeing to disagree on 'one China'' has been a principle of his China policy. However, over the past two years, we have only seen Ma fawn over Beijing and honor the People's Republic of China as the legitimate heir of 'one China.' He has seldom dared to show any hint of 'agreeing to disagree.' On the proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China, Ma said that only by signing the trade pact will Taiwan prevent itself from being marginalized and increase the likelihood of forging similar agreements with other countries. The fact is: Begging for China's patronage to help Taiwan seal free trade agreements with other countries is as foolish as hoping the sun will rise in the west. (April 8, 2010)

Hong Kong and Taiwan will discuss air links through two intermediary councils that have recently been established by the two sides, a source said Thursday. David Lie, a vice chairman of the Hong Kong-Taiwan Economic and Cultural Cooperation and Promotion Council, said during an interview with Radio Television Hong Kong that the council will soon engage in talks with its Taiwanese counterpart -- the Taiwan-Hong Kong Economic and Cultural Cooperation and Promotion Council -- to work out an MOU on air transport exchanges between the two sides. The existing Hong Kong-Taiwan aviation pact expires at the end of June. Talks about air links between Hong Kong and Taiwan have previously been held by representatives of the airline business sectors from the two sides. The Taiwan airline carriers, however, were not completely satisfied with the pact, Lie said. 'This year's MOU on Hong Kong-Taiwan air exchanges is expected to be signed by the two newly established councils -- a new communication platform between the two sides,' Lie said. Lie also chairs the newly established Hong Kong-Taiwan Business Cooperation Committee, which is comprised of members of Hong Kong's commerce and industry sector. The Hong Kong-Taiwan Economic and Cultural Cooperation and Promotion Council was set up April 1 by the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as an intermediary body in the absence of official ties between Hong Kong and Taiwan. The Taiwan-Hong Kong Economic and Cultural Cooperation and Promotion Council is being established under the supervision of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Department under the Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council. The two councils will work to facilitate broader and deeper exchange between the two sides. Possible areas of cooperation include public health, financial regulation and supervision, avoidance of double taxation, tourism, culture, sports and document authentication, according to the Hong Kong government. It is hoped that the councils will help tackle matters of mutual concern, including simplicility in taxation regulations and financial cooperation, to create mutually beneficial business opportunities, Lie said. 'It is keenly hoped that Hong Kong-Taiwan business and trade exchanges will not be compromised as a result of closer cross-Taiwan Strait ties,' he added.

Chen Tain-jy, a professor at National Taiwan University and former minister of the Council for Economic Planning and Development, said at a seminar that Taiwan's proposed trade pact with China will normalize cross-strait economic relations. In the video conference organized by the Government Information Office and held at 1230 GMT Wednesday in Taipei and New York simultaneously, Chen said an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) would provide a platform for Taiwan and China to resolve all their bilateral trade issues under the World Trade Organization framework. For Taiwan firms, the pact will convert China from an offshore export processing zone into an attractive market, he said. This is very important in light of the fact that China is losing its luster as a global processing zone because of rising labor costs and a policy shift toward domestic market development, Chen said. In addition to providing a level playing field for Taiwan businesspeople in China, Chen said the pact will open up new chances for them to cooperate with their Chinese counterparts. 'This will allow the two sides to pool their technologies and know-how for industrial applications,' he said. 'When free trade is achieved across the Strait, Taiwan will become a nice gateway to China for multinational firms,' Chen added. Taiwan's vicinity to China enables multinational firms based in Taiwan to better serve their Chinese customers along the coast than their competitors located within China, Chen said. Taiwan offers free access to information, almost unlimited support of financial credits, and free flow of personnel -- services that are not available in China, Chen said. Two other local scholars also spoke at the teleconference: Lin Bih-jaw, vice president of Taipei's National Chengchi University; and S. Philip Hsu, executive director of the Center for China Studies at National Taiwan University. They exchanged views with William Holstein, president of the Overseas Press Club Foundation; Douglas Paal, vice president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; and Daniel Rosen, visiting fellow at Peterson Institute for International Economics. President Ma Ying-jeou's administration is working hard to conclude the pact with China in June, but has had difficulty selling it to the opposition parties, which are worried that the pact will undermine Taiwan's sovereignty. The seminar is part of the Government Information Office's efforts to muster support for the pact.

President Ma Ying-jeou said Thursday his administration has been actively promoting the signing of a wide-reaching trade pact with China to help upgrade Taiwan's national competitiveness through participation in regional integration. Such efforts, however, have met strong objection from the opposition camp, led by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), as it worries that the proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) may lead to Taiwan's overreliance on the Chinese market, Ma said while meeting with Michael Porter, a leading authority in corporate strategy. According to a Presidential Office official present at the meeting, Ma briefed the visiting American management guru on the strategic and economic significance to Taiwan of the proposed cross-Taiwan Strait ECFA, seen as a scaled-back free trade agreement. After listening to Ma's briefing, Porter expressed support for the ECFA initiative and endorsed Ma's views on the pact's value to Taiwan, the official said. During their meeting, Ma also outlined strategies 'with Taiwanese characteristics' to accelerate the country's economic recovery that will contribute to Taiwan's goals of achieving high job growth, industrial innovation, energy conservation and carbon reduction, as well as participation in regional economic integration. As the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are still in talks on the pact, Ma solicited Porter's opinions on whether his administration's present strategy can effectively help upgrade Taiwan's competitive edge and which aspects could be improved or amended, the official said. Porter was scheduled to deliver a speech later Thursday in which he was expected to emphasize the importance of regional integration to economic development and to present his views on the challenges that Taiwan may face this year and how the country can create a win-win scenario in the development of cross-strait relations, the official said.

There is no solid evidence to show that China is trying to undermine Taiwan's diplomatic ties with Palau, but government agencies will continue keeping a close watch on related developments, Foreign Minister Timothy C. T. Yang said Thursday. Fielding questions from opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Chen Ying at a legislative session, Yang said his ministry and the National Security Bureau (NSB) will keep monitoring ensuing developments between the two countries, as a Chinese petroleum company, through a regional agent, has signed a US$40 million cooperation plan with Palau to help the South Pacific nation exploit oil reserves. Noting that China often uses economic cooperation ventures to cement ties with other countries, Chen warned the government of possible changes in the Taiwan- Palau formal diplomatic links. Yen Mong-han, deputy director-general of the NSB, said that apart from the oil venture, no solid evidence has been detected that Beijing is plotting to spoil Taiwan's diplomatic relations with Palau. Palau is one of the 23 countries that maintain full diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Most of these countries are in the South Pacific, Africa and Latin America.

As the six initial members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have formed a zero-tariff zone with China, concern over how the ASEAN-China free trade agreement will impact Taiwan's exports has been a hot topic in Taiwan. A finance official said Thursday, however, that the impact might not be reflected in short-term trade figures. Lin Li-chen, director-general of the Department of Statistics of the Ministry of Finance said that in the first three months of this year, Taiwan's exports to the six nations -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand -- amounted to US$9.04 billion, up 64.4 percent from the corresponding period of last year. Meanwhile, Taiwan exported US$26.4 billion-worth of products to China in the first quarter, representing a 75.6 percent growth from the amount of the same period of the preceding year, according to government statistics. In the January-March period, exports to China accounted for 28.9 percent of Taiwan's overall export value, while exports to Hong Kong accounted for 13.8 percent and exports to the six ASEAN nations accounted for 14.6 percent. Lin said that since the ASEAN-China free trade agreement took effect only three months ago, it would not be easy to assess the impact on Taiwan's foreign trade. Many elements, such as overall economic environment and export structure, must be taken into consideration while making an analysis, she added. According to a Finance Ministry press release, continuous improving of the economic environment has helped boost Taiwan's export business, and high growth rates in two-way trade were seen mainly because of the low base for comparison. In the first quarter of this year, the export value totaled US$61.8 billion, an increase of US$21.3 billion, or 52.5 percent, over the same period of last year. Imports in the January-March period totaled US$56.9 billion, an increase of US$25 billion, or 78.4 percent, from the year-earlier level. While electronic products remained the leading foreign exchange earners, grossing US$17 billion in the first quarter of this year, other major export items were metal products, optical equipment, plastic products, chemical products, machinery and textiles, as well as information and telecommunications products.

Only 22.1 percent of office workers in Taiwan own their homes, and 87.01 percent of homeowners are burdened with home loans, according to the results of a poll published Friday by 1111 Job Bank. Among homeowners, 82.18 percent use their houses themselves, while others rent out their houses or have relatives living in them, the poll found. Meanwhile, 76.24 percent of homeowners bought their houses themselves, with 51.49 percent using only their own money and 24.75 percent receiving financial support from their parents, the study showed. According to the poll, those with home loans spend an average 38 percent of their monthly salaries repaying their debts, with 13.43 percent of them using between 51 percent and 60 percent of their monthly salaries. Asked to rate the level of financial pressure they are under based on a scale of 0-100 points, 22.39 percent of those with loans ranked themselves between 91 and 100. The average ranking given by those with loans was 63. It also found that females felt more financial pressure than males. Ho Chi- sheng, a public relations chief at the job bank, said that was because men are normally better paid and had a better chance of receiving financial assistance from their parents as the purchases are usually made to raise a family. Most women purchased houses as an investment, Ho said. By industrial sector, office workers in the real estate sector were found more likely to own homes than workers in other sectors. The online poll was conducted between March 26 and April 8, with 1,097 valid samples collected. It had a confidence level of 95 percent and a 2.95 percent margin of error.

The Presidential Office on Friday challenged opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen to come up with its own economic strategy to deal with the crisis of Taiwan being marginalized. Presidential Office spokesman Lo Chih-chiang said Tsai has led the party for two years but has so far said nothing about how to address the crisis. If Tsai is opposed to a proposed cross-strait economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA), she should clearly explain her 'constructive alternative,' Lo said. The spokesman wondered how Tsai would cope with the problem of lower tariffs on the trade of goods between other countries and China as free trade blocs and global free trade agreements take hold, hurting Taiwan's exports and contributing to its marginalization. Earlier in the day, Tsai criticized President Ma Ying-jeou for his insistence since 2008 that signing the agreement with China was a necessity and said that the opposition had yet to obtain any comprehensive information regarding its details. She asked to have access to the early harvest list proposed by the government, the draft of the agreement and government-commissioned ECFA assessment reports. But Lo said the request by the DPP for more information before a scheduled TV debate between Ma and Tsai April 25 was unwarranted, saying that all of the information has appeared in previous policy presentations and is open to everybody. President Ma has instructed the Mainland Affairs Council and the Ministry of Economic Affairs to provide the information. On the DPP's request for information on the ongoing negotiations, Lo said that Tsai, as an experienced negotiator, 'should know that if information from an ongoing negotiation is recklessly made public, the damage to the negotiating process will be great.'

Taiwan's private investment totaled NT$386 billion (US$ 12.2 billion) in the first quarter of the year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said Friday. The amount was 37.57 percent of the private investment target of NT$1.272 trillion (US$43.1 billion) set for the whole of 2010 and bodes well for Taiwan's ability to move further away from the shadows cast by the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, the ministry said. Noteworthy among all industries was the green energy sector, which attracted investment worth NT$41.8 billion, amounting to 78 percent of the 2010 target, it added. The government was also on pace to meet its target of having Taiwanese businesses operating in China and other parts of the world invest NT$38 billion back in their home country in 2010, after such enterprises injected NT$9.5 billion into Taiwan in the first three months of the year, the ministry said.

The Atomic Energy Council (AEC) said Saturday that it conducts random checks on tiles sold locally every season and that there is no need for the public to worry about their safety. The AEC made the remarks one day after domestic tile manufacturers went to the legislature to call attention to claims that the government has been allowing substandard Chinese tiles to enter Taiwan via Vietnam and Indonesia. The Taiwan Ceramic Industries Association has estimated Taiwan's tile market to be worth about NT$25 billion a year, with tiles from China now accounting for 40 percent of the figure. Lin Chin-tsai, secretary-general of the association, also said the Chinese tiles are not examined, are uneven and break easily. He also claimed that they could have high radioactivity. However, the AEC pointed out that it conducts random checks on tiles every season and that they come from Taiwan, Turkey, Spain, Thailand, Italy, Vietnam and Indonesia, as well as various other countries. The test results show that the tiles fall within 0.07 mSv/h and 0.09 mSv/h, well within the tolerance level for radioactivity, so that there is no need for concern. 'The council will continue to conduct checks on tiles to ensure public safety,' the AEC said.

The Consumers Foundation urged local air carriers Saturday to come up with bolder fare cuts on cross-Taiwan Strait flights amid widespread complaints about the high cost of air travel between Taiwan and China. Foundation Chairman Hsieh Tian-jen said that although Taipei-based China Airlines (CAL) , Trans Asia and EVA Airways have recently announced fare cuts of up to 20 percent on their cross-strait flights, they are only reductions in the face values of the tickets. He reiterated that the price cuts should be reflected in the actual retail price to the customer. According to Hsieh, many China-based Taiwanese businessmen are still dissatisfied that a round-trip Taiwan-Shanghai flight cost over NT$20,000 (US$640) in early April. The price was much higher than that offered by travel agencies late last year, he noted. He prodded the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) to intervene in airlines' pricing, saying that they should not be left on their own to set prices in the particularly oligopolistic cross-strait air travel market. At present, only Taiwanese and Chinese carriers can conduct non-stop direct flights across the strait. On April 7, both CAL and Trans Asia announced 20 percent fare cuts on direct cross -strait economy flights from April 16. Trans Asia plies the Taipei- Shanghai and Taichung-Shanghai routes, while CAL offers direct flights from Taoyuan and Kaohsiung to Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. EVA Airways followed suit the next day, announcing reductions ranging between 11 percent and 20 percent on its economy flights from Taiwan to the same four Chinese cities. Sources familiar with the business, however, contended that the price cuts were more a symbolic gesture than a substantial move. They said the cuts will have no real effect on popular flights in the coming summer peak season and over the period of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, because tickets are already fully booked. The Fair Trade Commission also said the CAA should come up with more aggressive measures to push the carriers to reduce their ticket prices further and provide feedback to their customers.

The Republic of China flag survived an attempted suppression by Beijing at an international stamp show in the Belgian city of Antwerp that opened Friday, with over 50 postal administrations and more than 100 stamp dealers from around the world taking part. It is the first time Taiwan has been represented at Antverpia 2010, and it was attending as a special guest. Hanging the ROC flag along with those of the other countries attending the international exhibition reflects the organizer's respect for such a special guest, according to officials of the Taipei representative office in Belgium. The move, however, drew a strong protest from officials at the Chinese Embassy in Belgium to Frank Daniels, the project manager of the event, before the opening ceremony, they said. Daniels rejected the protest and pointed out to the Chinese officials that they were in Belgium and should show some respect, the Taiwanese officials said. Amid warming relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait since President Ma Ying-jeou assumed office in May 2008, the protest by the Chinese officials shows a different face of China that is not good for its international reputation. the Taiwan officials said. Antverpia 2010 is an international stamp fair organized by the Royal Belgian Federation of Philatelic Associations to celebrate the 120th anniversary of the founding of the group. It opened April 9 and was scheduled to run until April 12.

The Republic of China flag survived an attempted suppression by Beijing at an international stamp show in the Belgian city of Antwerp that opened Friday, with over 50 postal administrations and more than 100 stamp dealers from around the world taking part. It is the first time Taiwan has been represented at Antverpia 2010, and it was attending as a special guest. Hanging the ROC flag along with those of the other countries attending the international exhibition reflects the organizer's respect for such a special guest, according to officials of the Taipei representative office in Belgium. The move, however, drew a strong protest from officials at the Chinese Embassy in Belgium to Frank Daniels, the project manager of the event, before the opening ceremony, they said. Daniels rejected the protest and pointed out to the Chinese officials that they were in Belgium and should show some respect, the Taiwanese officials said. Amid warming relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait since President Ma Ying-jeou assumed office in May 2008, the protest by the Chinese officials shows a different face of China that is not good for its international reputation. the Taiwan officials said. Antverpia 2010 is an international stamp fair organized by the Royal Belgian Federation of Philatelic Associations to celebrate the 120th anniversary of the founding of the group. It opened April 9 and was scheduled to run until April 12.

Taiwan invested up to 1 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) in green technology in 2009, compatible with other major countries around the world, the Cabinet-level Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) said Sunday. According to data released by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) , 15.4 percent of the US$3.163 trillion that countries around the world funneled into various economic stimulus packages as of June 2009 was channeled into the green sector, accounting for 0.7 percent of global GDP. In terms of UNEP data, the council said in a statement that Taiwan matched the general world standard in green investment last year as the government spent NT$133.9 billion (US$4.25 billion) , about 1 percent of the country's GDP, in the green sector. The report said China led the world in terms of green investment in 2009, pumping in US$216.4 billion or 3 percent of its GDP. The United States came in second, with US$94.1 billion or 0.7 percent of GDP, followed by South Korea with US$36.3 billion or 3 percent of its GDP and Japan at US$36 billion or 0.8 percent. In terms of per capita green investment, South Korea topped all other countries, with US$1,238 per person, and up to 95.2 percent of its stimulus package was funneled into the green sector, the CEPD said. With global warming becoming a major concern, the CEPD said, the development of low-carbon industries is the wave of the future. In line with the trend, it added, the government has launched 10 landmark projects, with the goal of raising the energy efficiency by 2 percent annually in the next eight years and the annual carbon emission being lowered to the 2000 level by 2025.

After the Ministry of Foreign Affairs raised its travel alert for Bangkok to red Sunday, Taiwanese tourists will have to sign responsibility waivers if they want to travel to the city, according to the Travel Agent Association of R.O.C, Taiwan. The ministry raised its alert level to red after at least 20 people died and 800 were hurt in clashes between security forces and opposition protesters in the Thai capital. A red alert -- the highest level in the system -- means that travel agents have to cancel all packaged tours to Bangkok from Monday and offer refunds to their customers after deducting visa and passport fees, said Hsu Kao-ching, secretary-general of the association. Travelers who were scheduled to depart for Bangkok Monday were being informed individually, Hsu added. The stipulations do not apply to passengers only transiting at Bangkok airport, Hsu said. Refunds will likely include the cost of airline tickets and hotel deposits, a travel agent said Sunday. Meanwhile, both China Airlines and EVA Air said they will offer full refunds to those who already booked tickets. The announcement of a red alert stirred mixed reactions from outgoing travelers. Some at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport expressed concern about their safety and said they received the information too late to change their itineraries. Others, however, said they weren't worried and would go on with their trips as planned.

BUYING RATES SELLING RATES US dollar 31.330 31.700 Euro 42.45 43.15 Hong Kong dollar 4.010 4.110 Japanese yen 0.3347 0.3407 Australian dollar 29.33 29.53 Canadian dollar 31.28 31.48 Pound sterling 48.40 48.80 Singapore dollar 22.59 22.79 South African rand 4.312 4.413 Sweden krone 4.367 4.467 Swiss Franc 29.64 29.84 Thai baht 0.9622 1.0022 N. Zealand dollar 22.48 22.68 Chinese yuan 4.527 4.747 * Exchange rates for the US dollar in amounts less than US$10,000.

A Taipei city government health official said Monday that no locally produced foodstuffs or cosmetics have passed the Nanoproduct testing and that the NanoMark Certification labeling on many foodstuffs and cosmetics are not genuine. Chiu Yiu-ling of the city government's Department of Health was replying to several city council members during an interpellation session who suggested that some shops have been found selling cosmetic products such as facial masks and soaps, as well as coffee and nutritional supplements, bearing NanoMark certificates on their packaging, for much higher prices. According to council member Huang Shan Shan, only 15 categories of items produced by 20 local enterprises have been given the NanoMark certification issued by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and the some 400 items that have genuine NanoMark certificates are household electrical appliances, textile products, and other industrial products. The quality of the cosmetics and foodstuffs with Nanoproduct labels are questionable, according to the city councilwoman. Chiu pointed out that it is illegal to sell products with false labeling and said the city government will conduct an investigation into the matter.

All prepaid bus cards issued by other cities in Taiwan will be able to be used in Taichung City as early as mid-2011, the Taichung City government said Monday. The central Taiwan's city's public transportation system at present only accepts Taiwan Easy Go prepaid bus cards, which can also be used in central Taiwan's Changhua and Nantou. Wen Tai-hsin, director of the Department of Transportation of Taichung City government, said that if everything goes smoothly, all prepaid transportation cards operated in other cities -- including Taipei's EasyCard -- will be able to be used in the central Taiwan region. The total cost for launching the integrated system is estimated at NT$100 million, he added. More than 1,500 card reader systems on buses in Taichung, Changhua and Nantou will need to be reconfigured, and the city has applied for a subsidy of NT$45 million from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to integrate the system, Wen said.

The U.S. sale of 30 AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters to Taiwan is expected to be finalized in May, a weekly said here Monday. The Defense News reported in a story from Taipei that representatives of the U.S. government and the helicopters' U.S. manufacturer, Boeing Co., will arrive in Taipei in May to wrap up the deal. The weekly said that although there had been speculation that Beijing might force Boeing to cancel or delay the sale, the deal, announced by the U.S. in 2008, is expected to remain in place. It quoted Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council, as saying that the Apaches, to be equipped with Stinger Block I air-to- air missiles and AGM-114L Longbow Hellfire air-to-surface missiles, will begin to arrive in Taiwan between the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013. The helicopters were originally offered by the United States to Taiwan in 2002, but the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency did not formally notify Congress of the sale until October 2008.

system is flawed because it unfairly favors the rich, the problem with the proposed second-generation NHI lies in its desperation to become a 'Robin Hood' who robs the rich to give to the poor. Under the government's second-generation NHI plan, premiums would be calculated based purely on total household income. Families with identical income levels would be charged the same premiums no matter how many members each family has. This has drawn criticism because it would 'punish singles.' We support the idea of having those who earn more to pay more. However, the goal should be achieved in a fair and reasonable manner. If the new plan were to use 'total personal income' instead of 'total household income' as the basis to calculate premiums, the situation would be greatly improved. Under our proposal, the premium of each individual covered by the compulsory insurance program would be calculated based on his or her total income, with low-income earners and those having no income charged a basic premium of NT$300 per month. If the premium rate were set at 5 percent, a family of four supported by a sole breadwinner earning NT$80,000 a month would have to pay NT$2,100 (NT$1,200 + NT$900 for the three dependents) in premiums per month. A single individual earning NT$80,000 would pay NT$1,200. (Each individual pays 30 percent of the total premium. The individual's employer and the government pick up the balance.) This would satisfy everybody and enable the second-generation NHI system to be introduced early. (April 13, 2010)

The exchange rates for major foreign currencies quoted in New Taiwan dollars by Chang Hwa Bank Tuesday. BUYING RATES SELLING RATES US dollar 31.357 31.757 Euro 42.35 43.35 Hong Kong dollar 4.016 4.116 Japanese yen 0.3347 0.3431 Australian dollar 29.11 29.31 Canadian dollar 31.33 31.53 Pound sterling 48.22 48.62 Singapore dollar 22.56 22.76 South African rand 4.283 4.383 Sweden krone 4.342 4.442 Swiss Franc 29.68 29.88 Thai baht 0.9606 1.0006 N. Zealand dollar 22.40 22.60 Chinese yuan 4.535 4.755 * Exchange rates for the US dollar in amounts less than US$10,000.

Six Taiwan operators showcased WiMAX applications in the fields such as emergency rescue and health care, at a regional trade show that opened in Taipei Tuesday. The applications were on display at the Taiwan pavilion at the WiMAX Forum's Congress Asia, which was held in Taiwan for the first time, April 13-14. At the Taiwan pavilion, the WiMAX rescue equipment was displayed on two dummies dressed as rescue specialists. 'With this equipment, rescuers can send real-time images to a nearby operation center as soon as they arrive at the emergency site, ' said James Pao, an executive of Comm Tec Corp. that was commissioned to develop the gear for First International Telecom Corp. 'The equipment can also monitor the rescuer's heartbeat and body temperature and can detect any toxic fumes in the environment, ' he told reporters. This gear can be used by firefighters, security guards, police, and the military, he said. Another Taiwanese operator, Far EasTone Telecommunications Co., highlighted a network that can monitor the health of senior people who live in remote areas or are not very mobile. The WiMAX equipment allows such seniors to check their blood sugar and pressure levels and then transmit the data via a network that would immediately alert a medical team if there are any irregularities. For its part, VMAX Telecom Co. was offering free rides on taxis equipped with the WiMAX technology that allows passengers to surf the Internet or watch online videos in the cabs. VMAX also showcased a cellphone-based mobile TV service that provides information on stock markets and sports events such as the upcoming football World Cup. However, these advanced applications have not yet taken off in the wider consumer market in Taiwan, said Hsieh Ching-tarng, the director of the WiMAX Forum's office in Taiwan. Ron Resnick, president and chairman of the WiMAX Forum, said that at the moment the situation is different in Taiwan than in Moscow, where there is a buzz among consumers about the advantages of the wireless technology. He said it will take a while for such a buzz, or word-of-mouth marketing, to take off in Taiwan, but when it does it will help speed up the development of what he described as 'fast Internet service everywhere.' WiMAX is just taking off in Taiwan, but has been growing rapidly in many countries in the past year, said Johnsee Lee, the president of Taiwan's semi- official Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). Most of Taiwan's six WiMAX operators obtained their commercial license from the government between December of 2009 and March this year. Established in 2001, the WiMAX Forum now tracks 559 deployments in 147 countries, with estimated coverage of more than 620 million people worldwide, one third of which are in Asia. The annual congress, which was held in Singapore in the last two years, attracted an estimated 2,500 people, including operators and component and equipment vendors in the communications field.

President Ma Ying-jeou assured Paraguay Tuesday that his moves to improve Taiwan's relations with China are aimed at reducing tension across the Taiwan Strait and enhancing economic and trade ties, and will not affect the long-term friendship between Taiwan and Paraguay. In a meeting with Paraguayan Foreign Minister H.E. Hector Lacognata at the Presidential Office that same day, Ma praised the development of Paraguay under the administration of President Fernando Lugo in recent years. He pointed out that Taiwan has built solid relations with Paraguay and enjoys sound cooperation with the country in a variety of fields such as agriculture, industry, the military, medicine, culture and economics. Ma said he believes Taiwan's relations with Paraguay will become even more consolidated in the future, as the two sides have always supported freedom, democracy and prosperity. He also expressed his gratitude to Lacognata for sending regards to Taiwan after Typhoon Morakot hit southern Taiwan last August, and for his enthusiasm in continuing to enhance bilateral relations. Taiwan, which now has 23 formal allies, has had diplomatic ties with Paraguay since 1957, the country's sole diplomatic ally in South America.

Taiwan may file a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against Canada over its long refusal to allow generalized preferential tariffs (GPT) on Taiwan-made textile products, an economic affairs official said Wednesday. Since 1974, Canada has been giving GPT treatment to more than 1,000 products, including bicycles, lumber, machine tools, sanitation equipment, steel goods, eyeglasses, auto parts and textiles, from China, South Korea and several other countries that are similar to Taiwan in terms of economic development. Since its accession to the WTO in 2002, Taiwan has been lobbying Canada for similar tariff terms but Canada has remained cool to the requests and not made any goodwill gestures in response, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) official said. 'When our two countries held an economic and trade consultation conference in January, Canada finally gave a slight response, but its promise only further disappointed us,' the official sighed. At present, Canada allows Taiwan most favored nations (MFN) tariff treatment, under which tariff rates range between 3 percent and 6 percent. In comparison, most of the 1,000-plus items that are given GPT treatment enjoy zero tariffs. The tariff gap between GPT and MFN for textile goods is 3.51 percent, which has seriously hampered the competitiveness of Taiwan-made textiles in the Canadian market compared to similar products from South Korea and China. Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang has directed relevant MOEA agencies to try every possible means to protest Canada's discrimination against Taiwan's textile products, the official said, adding that if necessary, Taiwan may lodge a protest, or even file a complaint, with the WTO.

More than 20 legislators of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on Wednesday announced their support for DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen's re-election bid. The legislators -- including Lai Ching-te, Su Chen-ching, Pan Meng-an and DPP Policy Committee Executive Director Ker Chien-ming -- voiced their support at a news conference after former Taipei County Magistrate Yu Ching registered April 9 to run in the election for DPP chief slated for May 23. Entertainer-turned-DPP Legislator Yu Tien told the press conference that at present, Tsai should focus on readying herself for her April 25 debate with President Ma Ying-jeou on a proposed trade pact with China, rather than spend time on a re-election bid. Yu said that Tsai can rest assured because all members of the DPP legislative caucus will campaign for her to solicit support from grassroots party members. Ker said that the legislators' move is aimed at allowing Tsai to concentrate on the debate. The DPP currently holds 30 legislative seats.

Taiwan may file a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against Canada over its long refusal to allow generalized preferential tariffs (GPT) on Taiwan-made textile products, an economic affairs official said Wednesday. Since 1974, Canada has been giving GPT treatment to more than 1,000 products, including bicycles, lumber, machine tools, sanitation equipment, steel goods, eyeglasses, auto parts and textiles, from China, South Korea and several other countries that are similar to Taiwan in terms of economic development. Since its accession to the WTO in 2002, Taiwan has been lobbying Canada for similar tariff terms but Canada has remained cool to the requests and not made any goodwill gestures in response, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) official said. 'When our two countries held an economic and trade consultation conference in January, Canada finally gave a slight response, but its promise only further disappointed us,' the official sighed. At present, Canada allows Taiwan most favored nations (MFN) tariff treatment, under which tariff rates range between 3 percent and 6 percent. In comparison, most of the 1,000-plus items that are given GPT treatment enjoy zero tariffs. The tariff gap between GPT and MFN for textile goods is 3.51 percent, which has seriously hampered the competitiveness of Taiwan-made textiles in the Canadian market compared to similar products from South Korea and China. Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang has directed relevant MOEA agencies to try every possible means to protest Canada's discrimination against Taiwan's textile products, the official said, adding that if necessary, Taiwan may lodge a protest, or even file a complaint, with the WTO.

The Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions (TCTU) said Thursday that members of several labor rights groups will take to the streets May 1 -- Labor Day -- to protest poverty in Taiwan and what it calls the 'obviously inequitable distribution of wealth in the country.' The demonstration, dubbed an anti-poverty march, will highlight four appeals, including an appeal for democratic supervision of an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) that Taiwan is set to sign with China, and that blue- collar workers' rights should be included in the ECFA talks, said TCTU Chairman Shih Chao-hsien. Shih said many workers see the ECFA as benefiting only big business conglomerates and their owners, to the detriment of lower-echelon workers. 'Without any positive prospects in sight, laborers will take to the streets on Labor Day to protest President Ma Ying-jeou's administration,' he said. Another appeal to the government is to forbid dispatched work and oppose service outsourcing -- under which business owners enjoy lower labor costs because they do not have to pay benefits, severance or other packages to such workers -- according to Shih. The two other appeals will be for 'labor union autonomy and opposition to schemes to destroy labor unions, ' as well as 'allowing all wage earners to receive monthly pensions,' Shih added. Meanwhile, TCTU Secretary-General Hsieh Chuang-chih said the demonstration will start at around noon May 1 at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in downtown Taipei and end in front of the Executive Yuan. 'The demonstrators will be ready for further moves if the Executive Yuan does not give constructive answers that day, ' Hsieh warned.