American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Brent Christensen on Wednesday cut the ribbon for a new residential building for the institute’s employees, saying that the new facility is an important symbol of Taiwan-US friendship.
The ceremony was also attended by Taipei Commissioner for External Affairs Tom Chou (周台竹), Taiwan Council for US Affairs Chairperson Jenny Yang (楊珍妮) and Jean Group CEO Jesse Lin (林傳捷).
The Tianmei building in Taipei’s Tianmu (天母) area is the “first purpose-built facility in Taiwan to house employees of a foreign office,” the AIT wrote on Facebook yesterday.
Photo: Screen grab from American Institute in Taiwan’s Facebook page
The building “underscores our message of commitment and purpose, but also of US-Taiwan friendship,” Christensen said.
“I always say that it is the people-to-people ties that form the foundation of our friendship, and I look forward to seeing the many ways the Tianmei families help strengthen those ties,” he added.
The AIT spent NT$1.16 billion (US$41.22 million) on the building, as well as more than NT$200 million on two apartments in a building across from its new headquarters in Neihu District (內湖), the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) reported last week.
Having been in Taiwan for 42 years, the US representative office has over the past few years moved from renting to purchasing properties, it reported.
Additional reporting by Hsu Yi-ping
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
MORE NEEDED: Recall drives against legislators in Miaoli’s two districts and Hsinchu’s second district were still a few thousand signatures short of the second-stage threshold Campaigners aiming to recall Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday said they expect success in 30 out of 35 districts where drives have passed the second-stage threshold, which would mark a record number of recall votes held at once. Hsinchu County recall campaigners yesterday announced that they reached the second-stage threshold in the recall effort against Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘). A total of 26,414 signatures have been gathered over the past two months, surpassing the 10 percent threshold of 23,287 in Hsinchu County’s second electoral district, chief campaigner Hsieh Ting-ting (謝婷婷) said. “Our target is to gather an additional 1,500 signatures to reach
RSS