The Taichung City Government is gearing up for the planned opening of a science-based industrial park in the city, hoping investments in the project will boost the local economy.
Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) has instructed the city government to offer courses on the uses of the TFT-LCD computer monitor, that is to represent the major investment in the park, as a gesture of welcome.
The gesture is to be made to AU Optronics Corp, which has announced it will invest NT$200 billion in the production of TFT-LCD monitors in Taichung.
The huge investment, though seen by some as merely a publicity stunt, is taken seriously by the city government, which is desperately in need of capital to stimulate the local economy.
A city government official in charge of the project, who preferred to remain anonymous, said there is no way of knowing whether the NT$200 billion investment is going to materialize.
He was, however, certain that AU Optronics Corp is going to introduce the technology to produce TFT-LCD monitors in the city.
"For years, Taichung's industry has been focused on machinery. We do not have the ability to produce the kind of TFT-LCD monitors developed by AU Optronics Corp. Its investment here will not only introduce new technology but also immense business opportunities to local small and medium-sized concerns," the official said.
The vision of a prospective economic boom is shared by the state-run Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC), which has its headquarters in the city.
The AIDC, the developer of the Indigenous Defense Fighter, has produced a prototype of a large-sized TFT-LCD panel in an attempt to get a share of the new market it plans to enter.
The planned investment by the AIDC shows that the largest aerospace company in the country is looking for new markets, as it has not had any orders for aircraft for years.
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
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
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
HOSPITALITY HIT: Hotels in Hualien have an occupancy rate of 10 percent, down from 30 percent before the earthquake, a Tourism Administration official said The Executive Yuan yesterday unveiled a stimulus package of vouchers and subsidies to revive tourism in Hualien County following a quake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale. The tremor on April 3, which killed at least 17 people and left two others missing, caused the county an estimated NT$3 billion (US$92.7 million) in damages. The Ministry of Economic Affairs is to issue vouchers worth NT$200 at the price of NT$100 for purchases at the Dongdamen Night Market (東大門夜市) in Hualien City to boost spending, a ministry official told a news conference after a Cabinet meeting in Taipei. The ministry plans to issue 18,400