DIPLOMACY
Sister city ties eyed
Washington has offered to forge sister city ties with Taipei, the Taipei City Government said in a statement yesterday. The proposal was raised the previous day by Washington Mayor Vincent Gray during a visit to the US capital by Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌). Hau readily accepted the offer and said the two sides would realize the arrangement very soon, the statement said. Hau also invited Gray to visit Taipei in the hope that relations between the cities would be deepened through such exchanges. Hau arrived in the US capital on Wednesday on a four-day visit, part of a three-nation tour that will also take him to Nicaragua and Panama. The main purpose of the trip is to attend the 55th Sister Cities International Annual Conference being held March 3 to March 5 in Arlington, Virginia and to strengthen Taipei’s friendship with its sister cities in the US and Central America, the statement said.
SOCIETY
People receiving aid up 17%
The number of people in the country who received government aid last year stood at 188,433, representing 17 percent growth compared with the previous year, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The ministry attributed the growth to a 2009 amendment to the act that governs the government’s relief for women in special circumstances, including domestic violence victims and single mothers who lost their jobs or were too sick to raise their children. Under the amendment, the act was expanded to cover “families in special circumstances,” so that men in similar circumstances were included. According to ministry data, the ministry released NT$478.6 million (US$16.3 million) of relief subsidies last year.
TOURISM
Japan-Taiwan ties upgraded
In a gesture of upgrading the importance of Japan-Taiwan tourism exchanges, the Interchange Association, Japan (IAJ) will take over the assignment from a private entity starting on April 1. The private Japan Tourist Association’s Taiwan Office will come to an end on March 31 and the IAJ, Japan’s representative office in Taipei, will be in charge of all related activities the next day, said Toshinobu Ikubo, head of the association’s Taiwan office. According to Ikubo, the change is part of Tokyo’s policy of giving tourists a one-stop service location for planning their vacations to Japan. This change can be viewed as an upgrade in bilateral tourism activities between the two countries, as well as the Japanese government’s renewed priority toward attracting tourists from Taiwan. The private office had set a goal of attracting 1.5 million Taiwanese visitors to Japan this year, a goal that will be adopted by the IAJ.
CULTURE
NPM construction date set
Construction of the southern branch of the National Palace Museum (NPM) will start in January 2013 and the branch will open on a trial basis upon completion, which is scheduled for 2015, the museum said. The first stage of the project will involve construction of the main buildings and general landscaping, the museum said. It was decided in 2004 that a branch would be established in Chiayi County, with the aim of showcasing Asian arts and cultures. However, major revisions were subsequently made to the details of the project and they were not finalized until last October when the Cabinet approved the changes, according to a statement issued by the museum.
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
Many Japanese couples are coming to Taiwan to obtain donated sperm or eggs for fertility treatment due to conservatism in their home country, Taiwan’s high standards and low costs, doctors said. One in every six couples in Japan is receiving infertility treatment, Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare data show. About 70,000 children are born in Japan every year through in vitro fertilization (IVF), or about one in every 11 children born. Few people accept donated reproductive cells in Japan due to a lack of clear regulations, leaving treatment in a “gray zone,” Taichung Nuwa Fertility Center medical director Wang Huai-ling (王懷麟)
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
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