■ Politics2004 election date set
Next year's presidential election will be held March 20, a Saturday, the Central Election Commission announced yesterday. The commission said it has crafted a detailed schedule and standard operating procedures to ensure the orderly proceedings of election affairs. It said it will accept candidacy registra-tion between Jan. 31 and Feb. 6. A list of qualified candidates will be published before Feb. 11 and the candidates will draw lots Feb. 13 to decide the order
in which their names will appear on the election bulletin and ballots. The official election bulletin will be issued Feb. 20 when the formal campaign period begins. Commission-sponsored televised forums for candidates to present their campaign platforms will be held between Feb. 21 and March 19.
■ Weather
CWB watching storm
Central Weather Bureau meteorologists said yester-day that they were not sure yet whether tropical storm Kujira will affect Taiwan, but that they are closely moni-toring the system's progress. Kujira, which formed near Guam last week, had been reported as a strong typhoon before reducing in strength on its way toward the Philippines and being downgraded to a tropical storm. Kujira was located some 1,300km away from the Philippines, moving east-ward at a speed of 15kph as of 8 am yesterday.
■ Tourism
2003 travel fairs opens
The 2003 Taiwan Interna-tional Travel Fair opened yesterday in Taichung, the third annual event of its kind. The fair will run through Sunday at the Taichung World Trade Center. The main feature of the opening was a show by
a group from Thailand, which performed several dances. The Taipei-based Central America Trade Office, set up by the embassies of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guate-mala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, also put on a special "ecological journey" to give visitors to the fair a chance to experience the ancient Mayan culture, the Central American rain forest as well as handicrafts and aromatic coffees.
■ Diplomacy
Chen meets Costa Ricans
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday that he hopes to lead a delegation to visit Costa Rica next month or in June. Chen made the remarks as he received a legislative dele-gation from Costa Rica. He noted that Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco visited Taipei last October, and that exchanges between the two countries have been close. He expressed appreciation to the Costa Rican legislature for passing a resolution last October urging China to remove missiles deployed against Taiwan.
■ Politics
Lu meets with lawmakers
Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday advocated a division of labor between Taiwan and China, saying businesspeople should keep their product research and development in Taiwan, their manufacturing operations in China, and their product sales global. Lu and other members of Scientific Advisory Committee to the president met with law-makers from the legislature's Sci-tech and Information Committees and the
National Defense Commit-tee at the Presidential Office. Lu said she would like to consult with lawmakers on updating many of the now outdated science-related regulations.
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