EMPLOYMENT
Sweden eases permit rules
The Swedish Trade Council in Taipei has simplified the process for Taiwanese nationals applying for Swedish work permits. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Wednesday that Republic of China (ROC) passport holders applying for Swedish work permits can simply present a copy of an application approval letter, which the council would send to them via e-mail, when they go through Swedish customs. After entering Sweden, the letter holder then only needs to report to the Swedish Migration Board closest to his workplace to provide a photo and fingerprints to complete the application process, the ministry said, adding that the letter holder will receive the work permit on the spot. Before the change, ROC passport holders had to go through a lengthy application process that included a visit to the nearest visa application center in Hong Kong. The new process is outlined on the council’s Web site.
SCIENCE
University builds telescope
Construction of the nation’s largest telescope will be completed in 2016, boosting the nation’s astronomical observation capacity by at least 10 times, National Central University officials said earlier this week. The university is constructing the 2m optical telescope with financial support from the Ministry of Education and Delta Electronics Inc. The telescope’s four-color simultaneous imager will give more accurate color measurements and its fully depleted charge-coupled devices offer higher sensitivity, the officials said. It will be used to track and conduct follow-up observations on new discoveries made by the US-proposed Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System to search for celestial objects that might collide with Earth, they said.
CULTURE
Troupe to perform in Beijing
The famed Paper Windmill Theatre said yesterday it would stage its trademark children’s play Windmill Fantasia, in Beijing. The children’s musical will be shown at the National Grand Theater in Beijing tomorrow and Sunday as part of the 2011 Beijing International Children’s Theatre Festival, Paper Windmill Theatre director Jen Chien-cheng (任建誠) said. The group has been invited to perform in Beijing because it offers a unique experience combining drama and creativity that is rarely seen among Chinese performance groups, Jen said. Windmill Fantasia features selected acts from the troupe’s major productions.
INSURANCE
Monkey attacks covered
The Greater Kaohsiung Government announced on Wednesday that visitors attacked by monkeys while visiting scenic areas in the city would be able to claim compensation from the municipality starting next month. Formosan rock macaques, a protected species, have become pests, often harassing visitors for food at the Chaishan (柴山) area. Tourists who visit scenic areas such as Shoushan (壽山), Jinshi Lake (金獅湖), Chengcing Lake (澄清湖) and Cijin (旗津) are covered by a public accident liability insurance scheme with maximum coverage of NT$500,000. Only -accident-induced expenses are covered.
TRAVEL
Visa-waiver boosts EU travel
The inclusion of Republic of China (ROC) citizens in the EU visa-waiver program this year has boosted travel to Europe, industry insiders said. Since January when the visa waiver for 35 European countries took effect, travel agencies said they had seen a 5 percent to 10 percent increase in sales of European tours. Lion Travel manager Chou Wen-chuan (周文娟) said the visa-waiver program had led to interest in less traditionally popular European destinations such as Croatia. Another travel agency, Go Federal, said sales of its European railway packages had increased by 30 percent in the early half of this year. Tourism Bureau statistics showed that about 93,700 Taiwanese tourists visited Europe in the first five months of this year, a 7 percent jump from the same period last year. Chou said one of the factors contributing to the increase in travels to Europe was “marriage fever,” as more couples wed in the ROC’s centennial year.
SCIENCE
Research agreement signed
The National Science Council on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with a German research foundation, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), in a bid to enhance its international science research and shorten the period of schooling for Taiwanese graduate students. The MOU, which was signed by DFG chairman Matthias Kleiner and National Science Council Minister Lee Lou-chuang (李羅權) in Taipei, will introduce two of DFG’s academic projects, the council said in a statement. One is the Research Training Group, which provides graduate students with research-centric training programs. The other one is the International Research Training Group, which allows young researchers to accept instruction or thesis guidance from professors from the two countries. The cooperation will focus on creative research projects across different fields and integrated classes, and aim to develop interschool research direction and shorten the period of time for Taiwanese graduate students to finish their doctoral dissertations.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods