Paraguay could soon grant Taiwanese tourists visa-waiver privileges, a visiting Paraguayan official said in Taipei yesterday.
Cesar Aquino, executive secretary of the National Anti-Drug Secretariat of Paraguay, said Paraguayan President Fernando Armindo Lugo Mendez had told him before the trip that he would soon agree to grant visa-free privileges to visitors holding Republic of China (ROC) passports.
Aquino said Lugo also told him he would make immediate arrangements to visit Taiwan as soon as he receives an invitation.
PHOTO: CNA
Aquino made the remarks during a morning meeting with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) at the Presidential Office.
Ma said that he welcomed the -possibility of Lugo’s visit and the visa-waiver program on behalf of the ROC government and the nation’s people.
Ma said he hoped to see more than 100 countries offer visa exemptions or landing visas to Taiwanese visitors next year when the ROC celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding.
Earlier last week, the Council of the EU agreed to add Taiwan to the list of visa-waiver countries proposed by the European Commission for Home Affairs in June. The policy is expected to officially come into force in the middle of next month.
The decision means holders of ROC passports will no longer require a visa when traveling to 35 countries and territories in Europe, dubbed the Schengen Area, for up to 90 days.
This includes EU member states, excluding the UK and Ireland, which granted visa-free entry to Taiwanese last year, as well as Andorra, Liechtenstein, Morocco, San Marino, the Vatican, Greenland and the Faroe Islands — both exempted territories of Denmark — and non-EU member states -Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.
On combatting drugs, Aquino said Paraguayan police had joined forces with their Brazilian counterparts to crack down on marijuana planted along borders and -stopping drug traffickers from using Paraguay as a transit stop for composite drugs.
Ma, who served as justice minister between 1993 and 1996, said he attached great importance to combatting drugs.
During his stint as justice minister, Ma said he declared a “war on drugs” and successfully reduced drug-related crimes and the population of young people using drugs. He attributed the success to a three-prong approach that comprised cracking down on drugs, encouraging young people to refuse drugs and helping drug addicts kick the habit.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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