■ Foreign affairs
MAC official to visit US
Vice Chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) will visit US officials and US think tanks in New York and Washington next month. Tung will be in the US for 10 days. During the visit, Tung will update US officials and academics on Taiwanese political leaders' attitudes towards the arms sales bill and the situation following elections on Dec 9. The progress of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) constitutional reforms will be another topic that Tung will address in Washington.
■ Transportation
Far Eastern to launch service
Far Eastern Air Transport Ltd is scheduled to launch passenger charter flight services between Kaohsiung and Subic Bay on a trial basis from Dec. 17, an official at the Manila Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei said yesterday. In addition to offering regular flight services to businessmen from Taiwan, the inauguration of the route is expected to help boost the Philippines' tourist industry, the official said. According to the official, Subic Bay boasts a wide variety of leisure and tourist spots in addition to a brisk economy and excellent infrastructure. The official said Taipei and Manila signed an agreement last year to form an economic corridor between Kaohsiung and the Subic-Clark Special Economic Zones, adding that the move will help expand bilateral trade exchanges. According to official statistics, investment by Taiwanese manufacturers accounts for 85 percent of Subic Bay's total export value.
■ Transportation
Freego Bus contract at risk
The Directorate General of Highways (DGH) wants to revoke the right of Freego Bus to operate between Taipei and Kaohsiung after its current contract expires next month. The agency made the proposal on Friday and will send it for review by the freeway route committee at the beginning of next month. If the proposal is upheld, 60 daily bus runs would be canceled. The agency said Freego has had 11 major traffic accidents in the past five years, more than any other bus operators. Last month, a Freego bus ran into an oil truck, killing three people and injuring seven others. The bus company said if the committee approved the proposal it would file an appeal with the Petitions and Appeals Committee of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
■ Trade
Seminar showcases Vietnam
A seminar on Vietnam's investment climate will be held tomorrow in Taipei with the aim of enabling Taiwanese manufacturers to gain a better understanding of that country's economic development and investment policy, a Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) official said yesterday. According to the official, the workshop will be hosted by the Vietnamese central investment authority, the Vietnam Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei and the MOEA's Industrial Development and Investment Center. Since Vietnam was admitted into the WTO as its 150th member, the Vietnamese government has taken various steps such as revising its regulations governing foreign investment and business law to lure more foreign investment, the official said. The official further said the accumulated amount of investment by Taiwanese manufacturers in Vietnam has reached around US$8 billion, making Taiwan the largest foreign investor in the Southeast Asian nation.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai