LABOR
Dairy rules to change
Employers in the dairy industry soon are to be able to hire foreign workers, a labor official said, citing a consensus reached at a regular policy meeting held on Oct. 19. The Ministry of Labor and the Council of Agriculture reached a consensus at the meeting, but details of the opening — including the ratio of foreign workers to Taiwanese and the size of businesses that would qualify to hire foreigners — will not be available until a meeting next month, ministry Workforce Development Agency section head Kung Kuei-lan (龔桂蘭) said. The news of the opening came after labor officials, experts, workers and employer representatives reached an agreement in June to open abattoir work to foreign laborers. Both industries have faced personnel shortages due to the working hours, difficult work environments and high-risk nature of the jobs.
ENTERTAINMENT
Taiwanese films nominated
Two Taiwanese films have been nominated for Hawaii International Film Festival awards this year, the Ministry of Culture said on Tuesday. Director Sunny Yu’s (于瑋珊) drama The Kids (小孩) was nominated for the best narrative feature, while director Li Nien-hsiu’s (李念修) documentary Hebei Taipei (河北-台北) received a nomination for best documentary feature award. The Kids is about two young lovers who struggle to support their family after being catapulted into parenthood at a young age. Hebei Taipei is a memoir about the director’s father, a former soldier whose family was torn apart during the Chinese Civil War and who was brought to Taiwan. The winners are to be announced on Nov. 15. The annual Hawaii International Film Festival opens tomorrow and runs through Nov. 22 in Honolulu.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
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