Taiwan’s agriculture mission in Guatemala has won acclaim for helping the country improve farming technology and develop small farm projects, diplomatic sources said over the weekend.
The achievements have also attracted the attention of major agricultural research institutions worldwide, the sources said.
Representatives of agricultural research institutes in 12 Latin American countries and Spain visited Taiwan-Guatemala cooperative ventures on Wednesday, including a food processing factory, a dragon fruit orchard and an organic compost site.
Both Max Gonzalez, head of the Guatemalan Institute of Agricultural Science, and Chimaltenango Governor Hector Lopez expressed gratitude for the Taiwanese mission’s outstanding contribution to their country’s agricultural development.
The agricultural mission has two technicians and three diplomatic conscripts in Chimaltenango to teach local farmers about planting crops and food processing.
Meanwhile, Guatamalan Vice Minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Gonzalo Ochaeta led a group of senior Guatemalan officials and government advisers on a recent visit to a bamboo arts and crafts teaching center in Cuyuta City, which is also operated by Taiwan’s agriculture mission.
Ochaeta said he was impressed by the accomplishments of agricultural cooperation projects, adding that his department would send staff to the Cuyuta center to learn how to become seed instructors to help spread bamboo arts and crafts to every corner of the country.
The mission promotes bamboo cultivation and crafts and the Cuyuta center has become the best-equipped bamboo arts and crafts teaching center in Central America.
It offers courses on growing bamboo, handicrafts and bamboo-furniture-making technologies as well as bamboo architecture.
Taiwan’s agricultural mission has been using bamboo as the key building material for school classrooms and low-cost housing units in remote regions and for hurricane victims. It has also provided 100,000 bamboo seedlings under a rural development project in cooperation with the Guatemalan Presidential Office.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai
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