Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said yesterday that Taipei American School's (TAS) rent was too low, and asked for an increase to help out the cash-strapped county.
Chou said that it was only natural that Taipei County should ask to adjust the rent to a "reasonable" level.
He said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said the matter would require coordination with the Ministry of Education, which he said was a "strange strategy of passing the buck which we can't accept."
Chou said that since MOFA was incapable of presiding over an inter-agency meeting on coordination, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) should take the matter into his own hands.
Noting that the US is a major ally of Taiwan, Chou said that if the premier thought the government felt it necessary to give the school preferential treatment out of foreign policy considerations, the government should make up the difference in rent to Taipei County.
He said that as Su had previously served as Taipei County chief, he should have a clear understanding of the county's financial situation.
TAS was established in 1979 in suburban Taipei City. It has an area of around 11,500m2, with Taipei County Government owning part of the land, but the school only pays NT$220,000 (US$6,984) in annual rent to the Taipei County Government. By comparison, the nearby Taipei Japanese School has an area of 4,399m2, but pays annual rent of NT$7.45 million.
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
The government should improve children’s outdoor spaces and accelerate carbon reduction programs, as the risk of heat-related injury due to high summer temperatures rises each year, Greenpeace told a news conference yesterday. Greenpeace examined summer temperatures in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung to determine the effects of high temperatures and climate change on children’s outdoor activities, citing data garnered by China Medical University, which defines a wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) of 29°C or higher as posing the risk of heat-related injury. According to the Central Weather Administration, WBGT, commonly referred to as the heat index, estimates
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
RSS