Passport applications have nearly doubled since the release of a new design in January, with more than 90,000 applications received since then, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
The ministry on Jan. 11 released a new passport design that removed the English-language words “Republic of China” from the cover — but retained the Chinese-language equivalent — and featured the word “Taiwan” more prominently.
Following the global outbreak of COVID-19 last year, which restricted international travel, the number of passport applications dropped to about 800 per day, but that number has grown to an average of 1,354 per day since the ministry began issuing the new passport, it said.
Photo: Wang Chun-chi, Taipei Times
The increase was evidence of public support for the new design, and showed that people are already making preparations for when the COVID-19 pandemic ends, it said.
“As you can guess, there is going to be an explosion of demand for overseas travel when the pandemic is over,” Bureau of Consular Affairs Deputy Director Chou Chung-hsing (周中興) said.
“My advice is for people to take advantage of the current lull to get their passports early and avoid the crowds later on,” he added.
The bureau has received 93,420 applications for the new passports, he said, adding that there had been an average of only 794 applications per day between March and December last year.
Prior to the pandemic, the bureau saw an average of more than 7,000 applications per day, he said.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS