The Taiwan Agricultural Academia-Industry Alliance (Taiwan 3A, 台灣農業產學聯盟) is getting ready to help solve China's agricultural problems through a joint program organized by several Taiwanese agricultural experts and a financial institution in Macau.
Wu Ming-ming (
The idea of getting Taiwanese experts to help China deal with its agricultural problems was proposed by the Macau branch of Delta Asia Financial Group, which took the initiative to get in touch with the council, Wu said.
"Council officials told us that the Macau financial institution would like to invest HK$500 million [US$64.2 million] in an agricultural development fund to help poor areas in China, and that it wanted us to provide the agricultural expertise and personnel," Wu said.
"We accepted the council's suggestion to participate as we considered it a meaningful job," he said.
" Not only will it relieve poverty in China, we also hope it can create a win-win situation in terms of cross-strait cooperation," he said.
The program was initially drawn up by Taiwan 3A and Stanley Au (
They chose Beihai in Guangxi Province, Meixian in Guangdong and Kunming in Yunnan for the pilot projects, Wu said.
While the exact details of the program will not be ironed out until Au's next visit to Taiwan in September, Wu said it will focus on three areas.
China has long been plagued by three agriculture-related problems -- agriculture, farmers and rural villages," he said.
"Based on Taiwan's agricultural development experience, I thought that Taiwan's agricultural experts could find some way to solve these problems," he said.
The first goal of the program will be to improve the low productivity of China's villages, enabling farmers to produce enough food to sustain their families, he said.
The second goal is to ensure food safety by teaching farmers about the proper use of pesticides and other chemicals that they use, he said.
The third goal will be to teach farmers to protect their environment and ecological resources, Wu said.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
RSS