Incoming minister of transportation and communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) is to attend the APEC Tourism Ministerial Meeting in Peru if he receives permission from premier-designate Lin Chuan (林全).
If Hochen is given leave of absence to attend the meeting, which is held every two years, on May 28 and May 29, he would be the second Cabinet member to attend a major international meeting after the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration takes office following the May 20 handover.
Minister of Health and Welfare-designate Lin Tzou-yien (林奏延) is scheduled to attend the annual World Health Assembly (WHA) on May 23 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Hochen said that he would brief the delegates at the meeting on the status of Taiwan’s tourism industry and its development strategies.
The Taiwanese delegation would also include Tourism Bureau Director-General David Hsieh (謝謂君) and six other representatives. They are scheduled to leave for the meeting on May 26 and return late on May 31.
Lin, along with the other members of the Cabinet, is to brief lawmakers at the Legislative Yuan on the policy plans of the incoming DPP administration. Following the presentation, a question-and-answer session is to be held.
If Chen attends the APEC meeting, he would need to be excused from the briefing.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian