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Taiwan Quick Take

■ Diplomacy
Yu to visit allies
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is arranging a visit by Premier Yu Shyi-kun to the Dominican Republic to attend the inauguration of president-elect Leonel Fernandez. Spokesman Richard Shih (石瑞琦) said that Yu, as a special envoy of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), will attend the inauguration ceremony on Aug. 16. The ministry is still making arrangements for a possible visit by the premier to neighboring countries in Central and South America, and for transit stops in the US. This will be Yu's second visit to the region during his premiership. He visited four allies in Central America in August 2002.

■ Law
Driving test altered
The Department of Motor Vehicles under the Taipei City Government will provide written driver's licence tests in Indonesian and Thai starting tomorrow. The city government began using English on the written test in 1995, and added Japanese in 2000, providing greater convenience for expatriates, with some people even coming from other cities to take the test. In view of a great number of foreign brides coming from Southeast Asian countries, the office started the first Vietnamese written tests early this year, and they also printed a handbook with traffic signs and regulations in Vietnamese. As of tomorrow the department will also provide Chinese-Indonesian and Chinese-Thai traffic regulation handbooks. Anyone with questions about taking tests in foreign languages can call 2763-0155 ext. 205.

■ Trade
COA chief to attend G10
Council of Agriculture Chairman Lee Chin-lung (李清龍) will represent Taiwan at a Group of Ten (G10) agriculture ministers meeting scheduled to open in Geneva on July 5. It will be the highest-level meeting in Geneva that Taiwan has participated in since the nation's accession to the WTO. Yen Ching-chang (顏慶章), Taiwan's permanent representative to the WTO, said that as the farm trade talks will soon enter a critical period, the G10 countries decided to discuss joint strategies and cement their common stances on major farm trade issues in preparation for the Cancun round of WTO trade talks. Yen said Lee's attendance at the G10 ministerial-level meeting has both substantive and symbolic significance. G10 member states include Bulgaria, Taiwan, South Korea, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Mauritius.

■ Forestry
Hualien wants more rangers
A group of new forest rangers will begin their duties tomorrow, but officials in Hualien are concerned that not enough rangers will be assigned to their area. Officials of the Hualien District Office of Taiwan Forestry Bureau said that the Ministry of the Interior has assigned 178 policemen to be forest rangers, but Hualien will only get 21 of them. The officials said that in the past their forest rangers did not have the broad rights that policemen have, and even if they saw people engaged in illegal logging, farming, burying, construction or dumping they had to rely on local police to apprehend the suspects. This delay often resulted in the culprits escaping. Officials said that the area encompassing the Hualien Forestry Bureau is large, covering a strip of land 125km by 45km. The new forest rangers will not be able to keep tabs on the entire area, they said.

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