Taiwan Quick Take

■ Democracy
Think tank hosts forum
The Taiwan Advocates, a think tank founded by former President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), is set to hold an international conference this weekend to discuss Hong Kong's experience of living under Beijing's "one country, two systems" formula after returning to Chinese rule.

The conference has invited several speakers including former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, Nat Bellocchi; former superintendent of the Tokyo University of Foreign Language Mineo Nakajim; Chairman of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文); chairman of The Friends of Hong Kong and Macau Association, Byron Weng (翁松燃) and others. The academic conference will examine the operation of the "one country, two systems" formula in Hong Kong since its return to China in 1997. The conference will also focus on how human rights and free speech in Hong Kong would be impacted by the imposition of the controversial Article 23 of the Basic Law. President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is slated to give an opening speech at the conference on Saturday, while former president Lee Teng-hui will also participate in the seminar and moderate the final round-table discussion.

■ Aboriginals
Farm products promoted
Farming product promotion. The Council of Indigenous People and the Nantou County Government are co-sponsoring a sale of agricultural products grown by Aboriginals in the country from tomorrow through Sunday at Hope Plaza (希望廣場), 49 Pateh Rd Sec 1, close to the Guanghua computer market area. Products on sale will include fruit, fruit wine and vegetables. There will also be performances by Aboriginal groups and a teaching demonstration of traditional Atayal weaving skills. There will also be free plum ice for visitors to taste.

■ Education
Quality control urged
The number of institutes offering graduate studies has increased from 841 in 1998 to 1,904 and quite a few of these institutes are under-staffed, TSU Legislator Cheng Jhen-long (程振隆) said yesterday. He also said that the academic standards of many institutes is questionable. According to his report, 195 graduate institutes have no more than three full-time teachers each and yet many of these have admitted dozens of graduate students. Since graduate school tuition is relatively high, Cheng said there is no justification for these schools to provide low-quality education at such high costs. Saying that some universities have made their graduate schools diploma-mills, Cheng called on the Ministry of Education to review its regulations on the establishment of graduate schools to prevent the deterioration of quality.

■ Executive yuan
Writing change approved
The Cabinet yesterday approved draft amendments to the Decree Governing the Writing of Official Documents (公文程序條例), which would adopt the Western writing format for government documents. The draft will proceed to the legislature for review and approval. The Cabinet wants to see the plan fully implemented in three years. At present the law requires the writing on official documents -- except for charts, graphics and statistical reports -- to run from right to left and from top to bottom. The amendment will require documents to be written from left to right.