■FINANCE
Amendment set for screening
The legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee will begin screening an amendment to a provision of the Civil Act this week to reduce the ceiling for the interest rate on revolving credit card debt from 20 percent to between 12 percent and 15 percent, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said yesterday. Hsieh, who introduced the amendment, said many banks in Taiwan charge customers between 18 percent and 20 percent on their revolving credit and cash cards. The interest rates on revolving credit-card debt are too high and should be lowered, he said. Citing statistics compiled by Taiwan’s Central Bank, he said it had reduced the benchmark interest rate a number of times in the past year and that the rate for savings deposits had been slashed to 1.84 percent per annum last March, while the lending rate also dropped to 3.5 percent. “With the banks’ current lending rate lowered further to less than 1 percent, bank executives will be acting against their consciences if they do not reduce the interest rate for revolving credit-card debt accordingly,” he said.
■ ARTS
Taipei to host oil paintings
Artist Liu Hsu-yuan (劉旭原) — winner of more than 30 international awards — will hold a solo oil painting exhibition starting on Wednesday at the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall in Taipei. Most of the works to be shown were completed while he was pursuing graduate studies at Fonbonne University in St Louis, Missouri, said Liu, now an art instructor at the continuing education centers of National Taiwan Normal University, Chinese Culture University and Shih Chien University. The exhibition, Take a Trip with Me, is intended to share his experience of the US through his paintings. The exhibition will be open daily from 9am through 6:30pm until March 29. Admission is free.
■ TOURISM
Big tour group on its way
The biggest group of Chinese tourists to visit the nation since the opening of direct transport links from the China last year are due to arrive in Keelung today. The 1,600-strong group left Shanghai by boat yesterday, the Central News Agency said. The visitors are all Chinese workers for the US direct selling giant Amway, which says it plans to send eight more groups from China. During the seven-day tour, they will visit tourist attractions including Taipei’s National Palace Museum, Sun Moon Lake and Taroko Gorge. The KMT government signed agreements with Beijing last June to launch regular direct flights and treble the number of Chinese allowed to visit Taiwan to 3,000 daily. Since then, daily arrivals have averaged only a few hundred, triggering opposition warnings that the KMT government should not rely too heavily on China for Taiwan’s economic stability.
■ SOCIETY
Aging index going up
The number of people aged 65 and over in Taiwan totaled 2,402,220 at the end of last year, accounting for 10.4 percent of the population, a report released on Saturday by the Ministry of the Interior said. The aging index — the number of people aged 65 and over per 100 people aged under 15 — stood at 61.5 at the end of last year, up from the 52.1 recorded in 2005 and 40.9 recorded in 2000, ministry statistics showed. The report said the graying of the country’s population has increased the demand for long-term care and nursing institutions for the elderly.
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