The Tourism Bureau yesterday unveiled the rules for a plan to bail out the travel industry, which has reported significant financial losses due to COVID-19.
The cost of the bailout plan is expected to reach NT$2.9 billion (US$95.61 million), the bureau said, adding that travel business operators could immediately apply for funding.
The rules were formulated after officials and travel industry representatives discussed bailout options presented earlier this month by the Executive Yuan and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, the bureau said.
Bureau Director-General Chou Yung-hui (周永暉) thanked business operators for enforcing government regulations from Jan. 22 and offering travelers information that would protect their interests.
“We have carefully drawn up a bailout plan, as well as strategies to help revive travel businesses after the virus is contained,” Chou said. “We promise that we will fight for their benefit and offer them any needed assistance.”
The government has allocated NT$1.2 billion to cover financial losses that travel business operators sustained when they were asked to cut short tours for Chinese travelers, drop plans for outbound tour groups and stop accepting inbound tourists, Chou said.
Part of the funds would also be used to bail out travel agencies that are having financial difficulties due to a drop in inbound tourists, he said.
Travel agents applying for the funds need to prepare documents that can prove their losses, Chou said, adding that the Travel Agent Association would hold information sessions nationwide to inform members about the bailout plan.
The rest of the funds would be used to assist the tourism industry in securing bank loans and training tour service personnel, the bureau said.
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