The Ministry of Science and Technology is to boost scientific facilities on the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) and Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島), and increase collaborations with Southeast Asian countries, a ministry official said yesterday.
Minister of Science and Technology Chen Liang-gee (陳良基) on Friday led a delegation of 64 government officials and researchers to inspect facilities on Pratas, and meet with US and Japanese scientists.
The inspection is part of the ministry’s four-year Integrated Program for Intelligent Prevention of Natural Disasters and International Cooperative Research on Earth Sciences in Southeast Asia, which began last month and runs through 2022, Department of Natural Sciences and Sustainable Development Director-General Wu Chun-chieh (吳俊傑) said.
Photo: Copy by Tsai Ching-hua, Taipei Times
The program — composed of four subsidiary projects — aims to boost the nation’s atmospheric, maritime, Earth science and disaster prevention research efforts on and around the islands, and to share technologies with countries included in the government’s New Southbound Policy, Wu said.
First, the ministry plans to enhance research equipment at the scientific research station on Pratas, as well as improve its maintenance and support systems, with National Sun Yat-sen University professor of oceanography Soong Ker-yea (宋克義) serving as project head, Wu said.
Humanities researchers were part of the inspection, with an eye to inspiring new research based on the island’s extraordinary social and cultural conditions, he said.
On Itu Aba, the ministry is seeking to advance atmospheric observations by upgrading surface-based observation infrastructure, installing new cloud observation facilities and launching more climate data-gathering equipment, with National Taiwan University Department of Atmospheric Science chair Lin Po-Hsiung (林博雄) leading the project, Wu said.
The third project is to share the nation’s disaster prevention and early-warning systems for earthquakes with Southeast Asian countries, given that “Taiwan is a leader in disaster prevention studies in the region,” Wu said, adding that the project would be managed by National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction Director Hongey Chen (陳宏宇).
Through the fourth project, the ministry plans to fortify connections between Taiwanese and Southeast Asian academics, and foster student and expert exchanges, with Academia Sinica Institute of Earth Sciences director Chung Sun-lin (鍾孫霖) leading the project, Wu said.
Hopefully, the projects would enlarge the nation’s presence on the global stage and lead to more bilateral and multilateral collaborations, Wu said, adding that the ministry is focused on scientific research and collaborations, not political issues.
The ministry is to share research findings with scientists working for Year of the Maritime Continent, a two-year project that began last year to study the climate of the Earth’s largest archipelago, which stretches from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, Wu said, adding that Taiwan contributes by sharing observations collected on Itu Aba and Pratas.
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
SOUTH CHINA SEA? The Philippine president spoke of adding more classrooms and power plants, while skipping tensions with China over disputed areas Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday blasted “useless and crumbling” flood control projects in a state of the nation address that focused on domestic issues after a months-long feud with his vice president. Addressing a joint session of congress after days of rain that left at least 31 dead, Marcos repeated his recent warning that the nation faced a climate change-driven “new normal,” while pledging to investigate publicly funded projects that had failed. “Let’s not pretend, the people know that these projects can breed corruption. Kickbacks ... for the boys,” he said, citing houses that were “swept away” by the floods. “Someone has
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole
RSS