President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday in Kaohsiung City that Taiwan will firmly anchor itself within the world community by shouldering its share of international responsibility.
Chen told the sixth Asian-Pacific Non-governmental Organization Conference on the Environment that the Taiwan never forgets its duty to the world and will work together with international groups which share its concerns for sustainable development.
Noting that any development which spoils the environment will not last long, Chen said Asian-Pacific states should bear this in mind while pursuing their economic development.
Chen said that environmental protection measures worked out by the government cannot be effective without the participation of the general public -- and that is where NGOs can help.
The conference on the environment, called by the Peacetime Foundation of Taiwan, began Friday. It has brought together 100-odd environmental specialists from 16 countries.
The participants will discuss water management, ocean and coastal management, urban environment, wetlands and biodiversity, public and private partnerships in environmental management among other issues at the four-day conference.
Meanwhile Vice President Annette Lu (
"Because of Taiwan's successful democratic development and the outstanding achievements of President Chen's administration, more and more countries and international organizations are interested in visiting our country," Lu said when inspecting infrastructure in southern Taiwan.
"I hope to set up at least three multi-function parks in the country -- one each in the northern, central and southern parts of Taiwan. And each park should be well equipped for holding large conventions in the future," she said.
Lu, accompanied by foreign business leaders and local government officials, visited some historical spots at the Ta-pan Bay in Pingtung County. She said that there should be a cultural and tourism park or conference center there to prepare for the future direct trade, transport, and postal with China.
"Such parks or centers will not only to help increase local-government revenue but more importantly, will increase Taiwan's visibility in the international community," she said.
Lu also urged the government to invite foreign business leaders to invest in the plan so that Taiwan's tourism industries may develop a strategic alliance with those international enterprises.
"Taiwan can become Asia's Switzerland and Kaohsiung's port is the the best place to launch direct links once the two sides of the Taiwan Strait agree.
"Then southern Taiwan may become one of the economic, cultural, and tourist attractions of the Eastern Asia, and possibly the world," Lu said.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not