Cabinet backs MRT to CKS
The government has not deviated from its policy on building a mass rapid-transport train system between CKS International Airport and Taipei, Cabinet spokesman Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday.
Stressing that no changes have been made to the policy, Lin said that the government has earmarked budgets to phase in the project.
Lin's remarks came on the heels of a newspaper report that said the Cabinet has made a U-turn regarding the plan and has asked the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to reassess the possibility of constructing the line on the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model.
As to the line's surrounding buildings, such as stations and shops, the government will instead adopt the BOT model to allow for investment from the private sector, Lin said.
The construction plan linking CKS Airport and Taipei was slated to kick off in the second half of next year and be completed in 2008.
Taiwan's creativity ranked 8th
The nation has been ranked eighth in terms of creative ability by the Switzerland-based World Econo-mic Forum (WEF), officials of the Council for Economic Planning and Development said on Thursday.
Citing the WEF's global competitiveness report for 2002-2003, council officials said the nation's ranking is the second-highest of the Asian countries, next only to Japan, which is ranked fifth.
The top 10 of the 80 economies evaluated by the WEF in this field are the US, the UK, Finland, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, Taiwan, Canada and Singapore, they said.
Delegation scores in Ecuador
A trade delegation to Central America said it has scored solid results in its first stop in Ecuador, and is expected to obtain orders worth US$7.69 million within a year.
The delegation, headed by Bureau of Foreign Trade Director-General Huang Chih-peng (黃志鵬), claimed they were quite satisfied with the results in Ecuador.
After Ecuador, the delegation will continue on to Costa Rica, Colombia and Mexico.
Foreign trade between Taiwan and Ecuador totalled US$78 million last year, which was an increase of 19.8 percent over the previous year.
Steel exports rose last year
Taiwan exported 18.5 million tonnes of steel products last year, an increase of 12.4 percent over 2001, according to statistics compiled by the Industrial Develop-ment Bureau under the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Of last year's exports, 56.4 percent was exported to China, where 191.4 million tonnes of steel was consumed in the same year.
Thirty-eight percent of steel exports went to China in 1999. The percentage increased gradually to 56.4 percent last year, the statistics showed.
Heat disrupts work in China
Ford Motor Co shortened the working day at its Jiangling Motors Corp plant in China by three hours to save electricity because of a heat wave in the region.
For the last two weeks, the factory in Jiangxi Province operated for five hours rather than the usual eight as temperatures in Nanchang, Jiangxi, reached as high as 45℃ Celsius, Ford spokesman Kenneth Hsu said.
Normal production has now resumed at the plant, which makes light vehicles and vans.
NT dollar strengthens
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday turned strong against its US counterpart, up NT$0.031 to close at NT$34.415 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$210 million.
Agencies
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