The Taipei City Government yesterday launched an event to seek local and international sponsors for the 2017 Summer Universiade, with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) saying that the international sports event would create a win-win situation that helps boost the nation’s and local enterprises’ profiles in the international community.
Speaking at a press conference at the Regent Hotel Taipei, Ko said that the Universiade is second only to the Olympic Games and is set to be the largest sporting event the nation has ever hosted.
He said that a sports event is a “universal language” that knows no boundaries or genders, and that collaboration between the government and private sector is crucial to establishing a communication platform.
“There is only so much a government can do, but there are no limits to what the public can achieve. With the help of sponsors, we hope to create a win-win situation by which we can promote Taiwan and its enterprises to the international community,” Ko said.
The event has a budget of about NT$17.3 billion (US$528.57 million), of which the city government hopes to obtain NT$2 billion from sponsors.
Taipei Universiade Organizing Committee official Huang Lo-ning (黃珞寧) said sponsors will be classified into four groups according to the size of their contributions, which have a lower limit of NT$10 million.
Top sponsors who contribute NT$50 million, or resources of equivalent value, will have the right to develop special Universiade merchandise and market them during the Games, while those who contribute up to NT$100 million will be granted the right to advertise in the city’s mass rapid transit (MRT) system and purchase full-page advertisements in the event’s brochures.
All sponsors will have access to the event’s promotional tools, including a logo, mascot and slogan.
Taipei Department of Economic Development Commissioner Lin Chung-chieh (林崇傑) said the Games are set to be held at 61 venues across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan.
The event, which is scheduled to launch in August 2017, is set to span two weeks, and is expected to sell up to 780,000 tickets in addition to attracting 150,000 tourists, Lin said, adding that it would be broadcast to an audience of about 3 billion people.
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
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai