Increasing the number of scheduled cross-strait flights to 270 per week will still not be enough to meet demand and the number should be increased to 540 weekly flights, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday.
Most cross-strait flights operate at 90 percent to 95 percent capacity, and the quality of airline service could be affected if the two sides do not add more flights, he said.
“It’s a good thing that the number of Chinese tourists is increasing, but the quality of the tourist industry will be affected if related measures are not put in place,” Ma said when meeting a group of overseas Taiwanese from the US at the Presidential Office.
FALLING SHORT
Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) agreed on Sunday during cross-strait negotiations to increase the number of scheduled cross-strait flights from 108 to 270.
The number fell short of what Taiwan had expected. Of the 270 weekly flights, the number of flights to Shanghai only increased from 40 weekly flights to 56.
In response to a recent accident in which a crane hit a tour bus carrying 25 tourists from China and caused three deaths, Ma urged the tourist industry to take more precautions and tend to the quality of its service.
REPATRIATION
Ma yesterday also took the opportunity to laud the signing of an agreement to subject white-collar criminals to repatriation. Ma said he expected the US to sign a similar agreement with Taiwan.
“The government has been pushing for a repatriation pact with the US since I was justice minister ... There are quite a few fugitives in the US right now,” he said.
Ma said that Taiwan was cooperating with the US, and had helped the US repatriate many fugitives.
He urged the US to sign a repatriation agreement and join forces with Taiwan to combat crime.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
TRADE-OFF: Beijing seeks to trade a bowl of tempura for a Chinese delicacy, an official said, while another said its promises were attempts to interfere in the polls The government must carefully consider the national security implications of building a bridge connecting Kinmen County and Xiamen, China, the Public Construction Commission (PCC) said yesterday. PCC Commissioner Derek Chen (陳金德), who is also a minister without portfolio, made the remarks in a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsu Fu-kuei (徐富癸) asked about China’s proposal of new infrastructure projects to further connect Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties with Xiamen. China unveiled the bridge plan, along with nine other policies for Taiwan, on Sunday, the last day of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) visit
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