Vice President Annette Lu (
Lu received a red-carpet welcome complete with full military honors upon her arrival in the capital city of El Salvador for an official visit aimed at cementing diplomatic relations with the Central American ally and boosting bilateral trade and economic exchanges.
During a dinner with Taiwan expatriates in El Salvador, Lu said she is hopeful that Taiwan businessmen at home and in El Salvador can join forces to build an industrial park in El Salvador to accommodate Taiwan-funded firms, facilitating bilateral trade and economic cooperation.
PHOTO: CNA
Lu said the planned park should meet what she called the `Three P' goals, namely, the park should be "productive, environmentally protective and have perspective." Lu added that the park is expected to begin operation before the end of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) presidential term in May 2008.
Lu was to attend a meeting yesterday to discuss details regarding the planned park with Salvadoran officials and business representatives, as well as inspect the planned site of the park.
On the last day of her transit stop in Houston, Lu paid a visit to NASA headquarters, where she received courteous treatment befitting a visitor of her status. She was granted the privilege of entering the Mission Control Center -- NASA's nerve center.
PHOTO: PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE
NASA sent a Taiwanese-American astronaut, Edward Tsang Lu, to guide Lu on a tour of Mission Control. Lu was also welcomed onto the flight deck of a space shuttle to get a rare glimpse into the interior of the spacecraft. The vice president also invited Edward Tsang Lu to visit Taiwan to help inspire local youths' interest in space technology.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
RSS