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.
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The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
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Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
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