TRADE
Austria ratifies tax pact
Trade and investment between Taiwan and Austria is expected to get a boost when the double taxation avoidance agreement signed earlier this year takes effect next year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The agreement, signed in July, was passed by the Austrian parliament on Wednesday, Department of European Affairs Director-General Zhang Ming-zhong (張銘忠) said. Taiwan has completed all legal procedures required for the agreement to come into effect, he said. After Austria finishes its final legal procedures, “the agreement is set to take effect Jan. 1, 2015,” he said at a regular news conference. This is Taiwan’s 13th tax agreement with a European country and 28th overall, the ministry said. Bilateral trade between Taiwan and Austria was US$780 million last year, while trade during the first three quarters of this year was more than US$630 million. The ministry said the agreement is expected to advance trade and investment relations and promote technical exchanges and business opportunities and will help strengthen Taiwan’s ties with the EU.
POLITICS
Premier urges paradigm shift
Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) yesterday urged Cabinet members to adjust their way of thinking and to fundamentally change their attitudes and ways of doing things. For example, government officials should avoid using the phrase “going down to the countryside,” to describe their visits to the electorate, as this implies that members of the public they meet are below the level of the officials, Mao said during the first official Cabinet meeting since he took office as premier last week. Cabinet members should interact humbly with residents in all parts of the nation, he said. Furthermore, the term “promulgate” should not be use to describe the Cabinet’s efforts to put across government’s policies to the public because it suggests one-way communication, Mao said. He also advised government officials to avoid seeking excuses for their failures and instead try to find ways to achieve success.
TOURISM
Taiwanese No.1 in Japan
More than 2.61 million Taiwanese visited Japan during the first 11 months of the year, topping the list of foreign tourist arrivals to the nation, according to statistics released by the Japanese Tourism Agency on Wednesday. South Koreans ranked second on the list, with 2.48 million arrivals, followed by China with 2.21 million and Hong Kong with 819,000, the figures showed. A total 12.17 million foreign nationals visited Japan from January-to-November, an increase of 28.2 percent year-on-year, the data show. The number is expected to top 13 million by the end of the year, exceeding the 10 million visitors to Japan last year. The agency said the falling Japanese yen was one of the reasons for the increase in visitor arrivals.
TOURISM
MOFA issues visa reminder
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday reminded travelers to Europe’s Schengen Area of changes to short-stay visa requirements being implemented over the next several months. The requirements include collecting the fingerprints from all 10 digits of each visa applicant as part of the Visa Information System, which was launched in 2011 to ask Schengen member states’ overseas missions to begin gradually rolling out the new system over a period of three years.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday condemned Chinese and Russian authorities for escalating regional tensions, citing Chinese warplanes crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line and joint China-Russia military activities breaching South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) over the past two days. A total of 30 Chinese warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday and Friday, entering Taiwan’s northern and southwestern airspace in coordination with 15 naval vessels and three high-altitude balloons, the MAC said in a statement. The Chinese military also carried out another “joint combat readiness patrol” targeting Taiwan on Thursday evening, the MAC said. On
Singapore is to allow imports of Taiwanese raw pork for the first time in 15 years, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday. The Singapore Food Agency has approved imports of fresh pork produced by New Taipei City-based Cha I Shan Foods, which had obtained a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) certification from the ministry to export to Singapore, it said. The ministry said it had hoped Singapore would permit Taiwanese fresh pork imports in addition to processed pork products. Singapore agreed to accept Taiwanese fresh pork after completing a document review and a virtual tour of Cha I Shan Foods’ packing
‘FACT-BASED’: There is no ban, and 2 million Taiwanese have traveled to China this year, which is more than the 285,000 Chinese who visited Taiwan, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday accused China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) of shifting the blame for Beijing’s tourism ban on Taiwan, continuing a war of words that started in the past week. The council’s remark came hours after its Chinese counterpart on Friday accused the government of creating barriers to the resumption of reciprocal group tours across the Taiwan Strait. The TAO accused the MAC of releasing untruthful information and dragging its feet on the tourism sector’s call to establishing ferries linking Pingtung County to China’s Pingtan Island. The MAC failed to respond to overtures to restore direct flights and raised the
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) yesterday said the city “does not tolerate violence” after the Taipei City Council reported death threats over a planned screening today of a documentary on alleged forced organ harvesting in China. The council’s report follows a flurry of similar threats targeting theaters and institutions screening the documentary, titled State Organs, which accuses Chinese officials of harvesting organs from incarcerated dissidents and Falun Gong members. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors who planned to screen the film told a news conference earlier yesterday that the organizers of the screening had received a threat of a knife attack signed
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