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Taiwan Quick Take

■ Culture
Kalmyk group on tour
The Lotos Mongolian song and dance group, which hails from the Republic of Kalmykia, will treat Taiwanese audiences to a rare glimpse of this European nation at six free performances. The Kalmyk group will stage performances of its "White Lotus in the Steppe" tour in Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan, Taipei, Kaohsiung and Hualien from today until Sunday, said the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission, the tour's main organizer. Kalmykia, a constituent of the Russian Federation with a population of 300,000, is situated on the northwestern shores of the Caspian Sea. Its culture has been strongly influenced by Mongolia and Russia. Its people are descendants of nomadic Mongol herdsmen.

■ Diplomacy
New VECO head expected
The new head of the Vietnamese Economic and Cultural Office (VECO) in Taipei, Nguyen Ba Cu, will arrive in Taipei this weekend to assume office, the Vietnamese mission in Taipei said. Nguyen, 58, will replace Hoang Nhu Ly as the top Vietnamese representative in Taiwan, said acting head Pham Manh Hai, who is VECO's incumbent deputy head. Prior to his current post, Nguyen served as the senior consultant of Vietnam's Chamber of Commerce and Industry and worked in Vietnam's embassy in China from the 1980s through to the beginning of this century. Hoang served as the head of VECO in Taipei from October 2002 to April this year.

■ Infrastructure
Tilting train makes debut
The country's first tilting train, the "Taroko Express," made its debut yesterday. It takes the express just two hours to travel from Taipei to Hualien, shaving more than an hour off times on traditional trains. Thanks to the tilting mechanism, tilting trains can safely round curves much faster than traditional trains. The Taiwan Railroad Administration spent NT$2.59 billion (US$77.8 million) purchasing 48 tilting trains, 24 of which came into use yesterday, an official press release said. The Taroko Express is set to run six to eight times a day, carrying an estimated 2,660 passengers between Taipei and Hualien on weekdays and 3,420 passengers on weekends.

■ Budget
Local heads tackle budget
Fourteen mayors and magistrates from around the country issued a joint statement yesterday urging the Legislative Yuan to pass this year's budget bill for the central government as early as possible. The statement came after Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) invited 25 heads of city and county governments to the Executive Yuan to discuss the budget issue. "It is May already, but we still have not received the money we need to keep government operations running,"Su said. "The impact is very substantial. I cannot say how sorry this makes me." "I don't care what [lawmakers] argue about in the legislature. On the budget issue, however, everybody should focus and approve it as soon as possible because the government cannot work for the people without money. It concerns you and me," he said. A total of 10 mayors and magistrates were present at the meeting, while others sent representatives on their behalf, Cabinet spokeswoman Chen Mei-ling (陳美伶) said. Some cities and counties did not sign the joint statement as their representatives were not authorized to do so, she said.

■ Tourism
Taiwanese traveling more
Taiwanese made a total of 2.12 million overseas trips in the first quarter of this year, a year-on-year increase of 4.5 percent, officials from the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said yesterday. As many as 706,000 Taiwanese, or 33.3 percent of those traveling overseas, stopped in Hong Kong, the top choice for Taiwanese tourists, officials said. Japan came in second, with 306,000 visitors from Taiwan, followed by Macao, with 275,000, officials added. The number of Taiwanese tourists visiting Europe dropped significantly, falling 19.7 percent to 55,000, while Taiwanese visitors to South Korea decreased 7.7 percent to 90,000, the officials said. The number of foreign visitors to Taiwan from January to March reached 881,000, up 2.5 percent from the same period last year, officials said.

■ Agriculture
Taiwan promotes IOTC bid
Taiwan will promote its bid to join the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) at the organization's annual conference, which it will continue to attend as an "invited expert," a Council of Agriculture official said yesterday. The IOTC will convene its 11th annual meeting between Sunday and May 18 in Mauritius to discuss the issue of adjusting the IOTC's relations with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said Hsieh Ta-wen (謝大文), director of the Fisheries Agency. The IOTC is established under the UN framework and therefore abides by UN rules, which includes referring to Taiwan as "a Province of the PRC," Hsieh said. If the IOTC reaches a resolution to change its relation with the FAO, Hsieh said, it would facilitate Taiwan's bid to become a member.


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