President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) reaffirmed his commitment to vocational safety yesterday, saying that "the interests of greater industrial production cannot compare to the value of the lives of workers."
The president made the remarks when he received Shih Tung-sheng (
Shih is this year's recipient of the annual William P. Yant Outstanding Industrial Hygienist Award bestowed by the American Industrial Hygiene Association.
The winner of the award, named after the first president of the association, is someone who has made a great contribution to the promotion of industrial hygiene.
The president extended his congratulations to Shih, saying that this is the first time that someone from Taiwan has ever received the award since it was established in 1964.
Chen also noted that he had first met Shih in September 2000 after Shih received an award from the same association for a research paper.
The president said that since the Labor Safety Law (
He said that Council of Labor Affairs Chairwoman Chen Chu (
Chen Chu's goal was to reduce major vocational casualties by 40 percent in four years, he said, adding that statistics have shown that the vocational casualty rate was cut by 23 percent in 2001 and 30.1 percent last year, surpassing her goal for the second consecutive year.
The president said that this was not enough, adding "Our goal is zero vocational disasters and zero accidents."
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
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A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it