ECONOMY
FTA talks to start ‘soon’
Taiwan will officially begin free-trade talks with New Zealand “in the near future,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, following the recent completion of a joint feasibility study into a bilateral economic cooperation agreement. However, a specific timetable for the talks was not mentioned in the press statement released by the ministry. “The ministry hopes that negotiations will be smooth and bring concrete results,” it said, adding that the pact is bound to benefit and further expand Taiwan-New Zealand economic relations. In an interview earlier this month, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) said the highly anticipated talks could be launched “by the end of May.”
HORTICULTURE
Orchids go to Chelsea
Taiwan will present locally produced orchids with a dragon theme at the Chelsea Flower Show in London to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee and the upcoming London Olympic Games, according to a Taiwanese orchid association. Some orchid petals will look like the golden scales of a dragon, said Tseng Chun-pi (曾俊弼), secretary of the Taiwan Orchid Growers Association and head of Taiwan’s delegation to the show. Small sky lanterns wrapped in traditional Hakka flower cloth will accompany the dragon orchids as symbols of the country, Tseng said. “The beautiful orchids are blessings we have brought from Taiwan,” he said, adding that 20,000 orchids of 50 varieties will be presented this year. The 99th annual Chelsea Flower Show, recognized as the Oscars of the horticultural world, will run from Tuesday until May 26. The show has been a success in showcasing Taiwan’s orchid industry: Moth orchid exports to the UK increased from US$980,000 in 2009 to US$2.53 million in 2010, with the figure rising to US$3.52 million last year.
CRIME
Taiwanese cleared of fraud
Philippine prosecutors yesterday dismissed a case against 72 Taiwanese allegedly involved in a fraud ring. Davao City prosecutors said there was “insufficient evidence” to prove that the suspects used electronic equipment seized in a police raid on illegal telecommunications operations. Prosecutors also threw out charges leveled by police such as breaching the Philippines’ Electronic Commerce Act and illegal possession of firearms. Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau and Philippine police authorities apprehended the 72 Taiwanese suspects, along with six Chinese suspects, in an April 18 raid on three phone fraud operation sites in Davao City. The six Chinese suspects have since been released. Immigration authorities in the Philippines said they would seek to have the Taiwanese nationals deported.
COLLABORATION: As TSMC is building an advanced wafer fab in Dresden, Germany, it needs to build a comprehensive supply chain in Europe, Joseph Wu said Taiwan is planning to team up with the Czech Republic to build a semiconductor cluster in the European country, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said on Friday. Wu, who led a Taiwanese delegation at the annual GLOBSEC Forum held in Prague from Friday to today, said in a news conference that Taiwan seeks to foster cooperation between Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and its counterparts in Czechia. Such cooperation is expected to transform the country into one of the most important semiconductor clusters in Europe over the next three to five years, he added. As TSMC is building an advanced
A joint declaration by Pacific leaders was reissued yesterday morning with mentions of Taiwan removed after China slammed an earlier version as a “mistake” that “must be corrected.” After five days of talks in Tonga, a “cleared” communique was released on Friday that reaffirmed a 30-year-old agreement allowing Taiwan to take part in the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). However, the wording immediately raised the ire of Chinese diplomats, who piled pressure on Pacific leaders to amend the document. The forum reissued the communique without explanation yesterday morning, conspicuously deleting the paragraph concerning the bloc’s “relations with Taiwan.” “It must be a
A tropical depression in waters east of the Philippines could develop into a tropical storm as soon as today and bring rainfall as it approaches, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, while issuing heat warnings for 14 cities and counties. Weather model simulations show that there are still considerable differences in the path that the tropical depression is projected to take. It might pass through the Bashi Channel to the South China Sea or turn northeast and move toward the sea south of Japan, CWA forecaster Yeh Chih-chun (葉致均) said, adding that the uncertainty of its movement is still high,
TAIWANESE INNOVATION: The ‘Seawool’ fabric generates about NT$200m a year, with the bulk of it sourced by clothing brands operating in Europe and the US Growing up on Taiwan’s west coast where mollusk farming is popular, Eddie Wang saw discarded oyster shells transformed from waste to function — a memory that inspired him to create a unique and environmentally friendly fabric called “Seawool.” Wang remembered that residents of his seaside hometown of Yunlin County used discarded oyster shells that littered the streets during the harvest as insulation for their homes. “They burned the shells and painted the residue on the walls. The houses then became warm in the winter and cool in the summer,” the 42-year-old said at his factory in Tainan. “So I was
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