■ Economy
Growth of 7 percent expected
An economist at Mastercard International predicted on Friday that the economy will grow by 7 percent this year -- the highest forecast of the year's growth made by any institution. Yuwa Hedrick Wong (王月魂), Mastercard's economic advisor for the Asia-Pacific region, pointed to the country's booming technology, tourism and retail industries to support his optimistic forecast.
Wong said the high-tech industry is expected to gain more than 10 percent in profits from its fixed investments this year. This, coupled with strong exports, will drive up the country's consumption and push down the unemployment rate, Wong said. The number of foreign visitors as a percentage of the global total increased from 2.2 percent in 1998 to 2.7 percent in 2002. Increasing numbers of foreign arrivals will stimulate growth in the retail industry, Wong said.
■ Foreign aid
Rice donated to Haiti
The government recently donated 3,000 tonnes of rice to Haiti to help the Caribbean nation assist its poor people. Hsieh Hsin-ping (謝新平), Taiwan's ambassador to Haiti, announced the donation Jan. 15 at a ceremony attended by Joseph Philippe Antonio, the Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs, at the Foreign Ministry. Paul Duret, Haitian minister of Planning and External Cooperation, accepted the donation on behalf of the Haitian government. According to Hsieh, the rice will be distributed by the Haitian government to people in need, particularly those affected by a recent flood. The donation is worth about US$500,000. Hsieh said that the government will do its best to help Haiti overcome its problems. Haiti is one of Taiwan's long-term diplomatic partner in the Caribbean.
■ Diplomacy
Official leaves Guatemala
Control Yuan President Fredrick Chien (錢復) left Guatemala City for home on Friday, after attending the inauguration of Guatemalan President Oscar Berger on Jan. 14 in his capacity as a special envoy from Taiwan. During his meeting with Chien, the Guatemalan president said that the relationship between the two countries was very friendly and that he would strongly support Taiwan's efforts to participate in international organizations. Berger also expressed the hope that Taiwanese investment in Guatemala would increase in the coming years. In addition to attending the presidential inauguration, Chien also paid a visit to out-going President Alfonso Portillo to thank him for his support for the Taiwanese government during his four years in power. During his stay in Guatemala City, Chien also met with the secretary-general of the Dominican Republic's Presidential Office, as well as leaders of overseas Chinese communities in Guatemala.
■ Weather
Cold front lingers in Taiwan
Taiwan's weather will remain cold over the next few days and turn even colder on the eve of the Lunar New Year on Wednesday due to the arrival of a new cold front, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. Weather bureau meteorologists forecast lows of 13 degrees Celsius in northern Taiwan and 15 degrees Celsius in central and southern Taiwan during the day over the weekend. They said that temperatures could drop to 11 degrees Celsius at night. Temperatures are expected to get warmer on Tuesday but then drop again the next day to as low as 8 degrees Celsius with the arrival of another cold front, the meteorologists said.
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:
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
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
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater