■Diplomacy
APEC team heads home
A delegation led by Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Yi-fu (林義夫) left Bangkok for home yesterday after taking part in an APEC ministerial-level meeting in Khon Kaen, Thailand. Lin and the other 18 delegates were waved off at the airport by Taipei's Representative to Thailand Paul Cheng (鄭博久). During the three-day APEC meeting, Lin held bilateral talks with his counterparts from Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Mexico and Papua New Guinea. He also met on two occasions with WTO Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi although he later claimed that their meetings were short. Lin made many proposals during the meetings, ranging from anti-terrorist efforts, regional trade security, the signing of free trade pacts and the protection of intellectual property rights, to a joint campaign to combat SARS.
■ Politics
Chen praises Yu
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday was upbeat on the performance of Premier Yu Shyi-kun on the economy as well as his efforts in fighting SARS.
The president made the remarks while traveling to Ilan to attend a traditional dragon boat festival. Chen said economic growth reached 3.54 percent last year, which was better than 2.4 percent in the US, 2.3 percent in Hong Kong, 0.3 percent in Japan and 0.2 percent in Germany. He also said that the nation's foreign exchange reserves increased by US$40 billion at the end of last year, which set a yearly increase record. Chen also spoke highly of the financial reforms and the performance of state-owned businesses under Yu's leadership. He said that domestic banks wrote off more than NT$413 billion (US$11.8 billion) in bad debts last year, and that state-owned enterprises also had outstanding performances, with only one enterprise losing money from the past where only four were making money.
■ Transportation
Traffic-ticket record set
Taiwan topped the world in terms of the number of traffic tickets received by each licensed motor vehicle last year, Tsai Chih-chung of the Central Police University said yesterday. Quoting tallies compiled by the National Police Administration, Tsai said traffic police issued more than 17.41 million traffic tickets last year. "This figure could be translated to 1.5 traffic tickets for each of the nation's 11 million drivers or motorcyclists who have received licenses," Tsai said, adding that the per capita figure was higher than that recorded in the US, Japan and Canada. NPA statistics further showed that traffic fines amounted to NT$18.87 billion (US$542.24 million) last year. "This means that each driver paid an average of NT$1,100 in traffic fines last year," Tsai said. According to Tsai, traffic fines have become an important financial source for city and county governments.
■ Health
WHO fails to deliver
The World Health Organization (WHO) has failed to follow through on a promise to give Taiwan a batch of test kits to help its fight against SARS, a health official said Tuesday. Ho Hsu-mei (許須美), deputy director-general of the Center for Disease Control under the Department of Health, said the WHO promised to provide Taiwan with a batch of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) kits and serological test kits when SARS was rampant in Taiwan last month, but the kits never arrived. Ho said her office has contacted the WHO many times to chase up the kits.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
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