The number of EasyCards in circulation has now reached more than 50 million, the Taipei EasyCard Corp announced yesterday.
Former Taipei EasyCard chairman Sean Lien (連勝文) — currently the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate running in the Nov. 29 elections — attended a news conference marking the occasion, along with another former EasyCard chairman.
Lien featured prominently throughout the event, walking in with Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), delivering remarks and taking questions afterward.
Hau singled out Lien for praise, attributing the rapid growth and success of the EasyCard to Lien’s work in transitioning it from a traffic card into a small-cash card.
As functions of the card have increased and agreements have been reached to expand its use beyond Greater Taipei, the number of EasyCards issued has rapidly increased, with a total of 6.1 million cards issued this year, equal to one card every five seconds, the company said.
Although many new cards are purchased by collectors, card transactions have also steadily increased, moving from 15.5 million in September last year to 17.3 million in December last year, it added.
Hau said that in the future EasyCard users would be able to make small purchases and ride public transportation in Hong Kong and Singapore.
EasyCard said it is in ongoing discussions with Hong Kong, while a memorandum of understanding has already been signed with Singapore’s EasyLink. With compatibility testing is ongoing, the firm expects EasyCard to be usable in Singapore within the next year.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
RSS