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Taiwan Quick Take

■ Legislature
Taiwan Expo budget axed
The planned 2008 Taiwan Expo is destined to be stillborn as legislators agreed to strike out the annual budget earmarked for the event during cross-party talks yesterday. During the meeting, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Chen Chieh (陳杰) proposed to delete the NT$2.2 billion that the government has earmarked for the event in this year's annual budget. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Jao Yung-ching (趙永清) agreed to the KMT's proposal, saying that it is meaningless to pass the budget if the bill governing the organization of the fair fails to clear the legislature. Despite a hunger strike staged by civic groups and the endorsement of Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), the KMT legislative caucus has stood firm in its opposition to the event, citing the nation's financial difficulties. The government planned to spend NT$19.5 billion (US$608 million) to hold the four-month exposition. It hoped the event would attract about 5.5 million visitors, including 5 million foreigners and 500,000 Taiwanese.

■ Education
Wang opens schools for poor
Wang Chien-shien, one of the founders of the New Party, has faded from the political spectrum but found a "second spring" by establishing schools in China for children from poor families. Wang, who served as a finance minister when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was in power, is currently chairman of two high schools in Zhejiang Province -- the Pinghu Xinaihuaxin Senior High School and the Pinghu Foreign Language and Business Experimental School. The Pinghu Xinaihuaxin Senior High School is financed and operated by an educational investment company owned by the Pinghu City Government and one of Wang's foundations. The school will be completely donated to the Pinghu City Government after 20 years of operation, Wang said. Currently, the school operates 38 classes ranging from the first to the third year of high school education, with a faculty of about 150 people. In the Pinghu Foreign Language and Business Experimental School, nine youths have been accepted, all of whom are from poor or workers' families outside Zhejiang Province, according to Wang.

■ Technology
Officials visit Israel
Taiwan and Israel are complementary to each other in many fields when it comes to science and technology research and development, Taiwan National Science Council Chairman Wu Mao-kun (吳茂崑) said in Tel Aviv yesterday. Wu, currently on a visit in Israel with Academia Sinica Vice President Ovid Tzeng (曾志朗) and a group of Taiwan officials and leaders from the science and technology research field, visited Tel Aviv University and the Weizmann Institute of Science Tuesday to gain a better understanding of science and technology development in Israel. Wu, Tzeng and the group visited Israel's Ministry of Science and Technology the day before to probe the prospects for bilateral cooperation in the science and technology fields between the two countries. According to Wu, there have been many "talks" regarding science and technology cooperation between Taiwan and Israel, but few of them have been put into practice."It is hoped that our visit here this time will help materialize actual cooperative projects," Wu said.

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