Print

Mail

wiki links

Taiwan Quick Take

■ Education
Students study Chinese
Students from the University of California at Berkeley visited the Ministry of Education yesterday to show off their achievements after six weeks of Chinese courses in Taiwan. Li I-hao (黎宜浩), the leader of the team and also a Taiwanese instructor at the Department of East Asian Languages at UC Berkeley, said that 43 students signed up for the program this year and 37 of them, including two students from China, received an average of US$405 in scholarship money from the education ministry.

■ Business
Taipei to pay MRT fine
Yielding to a decision made by the Supreme Court last month, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the city's Department of Rapid Transit Systems agreed to pay a NT$1.6 billion (US$50 million) fine to the French firm Matra using the city's reserve fund. While Ma hesitated to respond to the decision immediately after the Supreme Court ordered the department to pay the fine for construction delays on the MRT's Muzha Line last month, the department said that it had already paid a NT$1.09 billion bond to the court, and Ma agreed later to pay the full fine. According to the department, the city government plans to pay the remainder with the more than NT$500 million reserve fund. The plan still needs approval from the city council. The legal battle between DORTS and Matra lasted 12 years, stemming from the troubled premier line of Taipei's MRT network -- the Muzha Line in 1988.

■ Politics
You replaces Liu at SEF
You Ying-lung (游盈隆), a vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), Taiwan's policymaking body on cross-strait affairs, was named yesterday as the secretary-general of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) by its board of directors. You, who took the SEF post as of yesterday, told a press conference that he will propose a scheme to establish a service center for Taiwanese businesspeople investing in China within one week's time. He took over the SEF's post from Johnnason Liu (劉德勳), who is also a MAC vice chairman. SEF Chairman Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) said that You was recommended by the MAC and national security agencies to serve in the post of SEF, the quasi-official body dealing with cross-Taiwan Strait relations in the absence of official ties between Taiwan and China. While Chang served as the chairman of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, You was the party's deputy secretary-general, assisting Chang in the party's business.

■ Education
Students pick Taiwan
The International Pharmaceutical Students' Federation (IPSF) has voted for Taiwan to host its annual congress in 2007, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The decision was made on Tuesday at the 51st IPSF Congress in Bonn, Germany, where the Pharmaceutical Students' Association of Taiwan (PSAT) made the bid to host the 2007 event, the ministry said. "It marks a step forward in Taiwan's bid to forge closer relations with non-governmental organizations," a ministry official said. PSAT said it had been in close contact with the IPSF, with whom it launched the "IPSF Exchange Student Program" to send Taiwanese students for internships overseas at government institutions, pharmaceutical companies and hospitals to acquire professional knowledge and experience in foreign cultures.

This story has been viewed 1859 times.