Taiwan Quick Take

■ Education
More foreigners to be hired
Head of the British Council, Taipei Office Gordon Slaven signed a service contract for recruiting foreign English teachers yesterday with Lau Ching-jen (劉慶仁), head of the Cultural Division of Taipei Representative Office in the UK, who represented the Bureau of International and Educational Relations. The UK is now the second country to recruit qualified English teachers, following Canada. The British government will recruit native speakers with qualification in teaching before Oct. 31 to fill 70 posts. Qualified candidates are expected to start teaching next February. Bureau officials said the new teachers would probably teach in remote areas. Those schools which can provide accommodation for the teachers will be given first consideration.

■ Military Affairs
Ethnic balance changes
Retired soldiers from the Taiwanese and Hakka ethnic groups account for more than half of the total of some 530,000 veterans, officials from the Veterans Affairs Commission (VAC) said yesterday. The officials made the remarks at a seminar on ethnic integration held to discuss issues concerning cross-strait marriages and veterans going to China for settlement. In the past, the mainlanders who retreated to Taiwan with Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) in 1949 made up the bulk of veterans, but commission Chairman Kao Hua-chu (高華柱) said yesterday that as of the end of last year, there were more than 282,000 veterans from the Taiwanese and Hakka ethnic groups, surpassing one half of the total of around 530,000. There were also around 7,500 veterans from Aboriginal groups.

■ Politics
DPP will court Lee
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will invite former president Lee Teng- hui (李登輝) to stump for its candidates in December's legislative elections, DPP secretary-general Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) said yesterday. Chang said the DPP and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) are partners and that both parties had cooperated in many areas in the past. He said it was inevitable that there would be competition between the parties during the year-end elections, and noted that a portion of supporters for the two parties overlapped. He added that the DPP would "properly handle its relations with the TSU." Chang said that it was undeniable that Lee, the spiritual leader of the TSU, was a trump card for that party in its election campaign, but that the DPP would still invite him to stump for DPP candidates.

■ Trade
Outlets to open in Japan
The nation has its sights on expanding its international presence in farm and aquacultural produce, with the Council of Agriculture paying particular attention to the Japanese market, a council spokesman said yesterday. The council plans to open "fine Taiwan agricultural produce centers" in Tokyo and Osaka to introduce the produce in Japan, he said. In line with a set of promotional guidelines and packages for overseas sales, the council has recently targeted star fruit, papaya and guava for overseas markets. In addition, moth orchids, oolong tea, mangoes and bream have been labeled as flagship products for export, he said. Taiwan's agricultural trade hit US$6.217 billion in the first half of the year. Inbound shipments outstripped outbound shipments US$4.52 billion to US$1.67 billion, leaving the country with a deficit of US$2.82 billion, up by 29 percent over the previous year's level.