The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) will permit Chinese tourists and cross-strait charter flights on weekends and holidays soon after wrapping up bilateral negotiations, council Vice Chairman Johnnason Liu (
Liu made the remarks at a Legislative Yuan seminar sponsored by the legislative caucus of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). KMT lawmakers had suggested that the government permit the opening as soon as possible after the coming Lunar New Year -- which falls on Feb. 18 -- to help bolster Taiwan's economy.
Officials from relevant government agencies, including the MAC, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, the Ministry of the Interior and the central bank were also present at the meeting.
Liu said that bilateral talks on Taiwan's opening to Chinese tourists, cross-strait weekend and holiday charter flights and the exchange of Chinese yuan in Taiwan have made concrete progress and the MAC would allow the opening soon after the two sides conclude negotiations.
Central bank Deputy Governor Hsu I-hsiung (
Meanwhile, local real-estate and property developers forecast that opening up to Chinese tourists will stimulate not only office building demand, but also the retail and hotel markets.
As Taiwan's property prices still lag far behind those in other developed nations, Chinese tourists with strong purchasing power would likely target the local real-estate market, industry sources said.
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
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