POLITICS
Chen Pei-yu enters legislature
Chen Pei-yu (陳培瑜), a promoter of children’s reading, is to fill a legislative seat vacated by Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲), who has been appointed to head the Ocean Affairs Council, the Central Election Commission said. Kuan, who was sworn in as a member of new Premier Chen Chien-jen’s (陳建仁) Cabinet on Tuesday, held an at-large seat representing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Chen is to serve the remainder of the legislative term until Jan. 31, next year, the commission said. Control Yuan member Chang Chu-fang (張菊芳) was next in line on the DPP’s legislator-at-large succession list, but Chang decided to keep her position. Her term ends in 2026.
AVIATION
Matsuyama flights resume
A charter flight carrying 179 Japanese tourists arrived at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) from Matsuyama Airport on Saturday evening, marking the resumption of passenger services between the two airports after nearly three years during the COVID-19 pandemic. The travel industry is seeking to benefit from the resumption of international travel, after Taiwan reopened its borders to foreign tourists. The borders had been closed in March 2020 to prevent a domestic outbreak of COVID-19. An annual report on foreign visitors by the Tourism Bureau in 2019 said that Japanese members of group tours on average spent US$303.12 in Taiwan, leading the rankings of foreign travelers. Charter flights between the two airports were launched in 2013, and the operator promoted them based on Songshan and Matsuyama being written with the same Chinese characters. Until the pandemic hiatus, there were also flights between Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Matsuyama.
LOTTERY
Fifteen people win NT$10m
Fifteen receipts issued in November or December last year each won the NT$10 million (US$334,448) special prize in the invoice lottery, the Ministry of Finance said on Friday. Three of the 15 receipts with the winning number 28089459 were issued at 7-Eleven convenience stores, including one issued for a NT$39 drink, and another for a NT$13 bill payment charge. Other NT$10 million winners included a person who spent NT$81 on chocolate and other items at a Hi-Life convenience store in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音), the ministry said. FamilyMart convenient stores issued two NT$10 million winning receipts, both for purchases of less than NT$60, in Taichung’s East District (東區) and Taoyuan’s Luzhu District (路竹). Meanwhile, 7-Eleven stores issued two of the 14 receipts with the NT$2 million grand prize-winning number 30660303, it said.
ENVIRONMENT
Hualien commissions e-bikes
Hualien County’s 177 borough and village wardens have received electric bikes for official use as a part of a local drive to contribute to the national goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2025, the Hualien Environmental Protection Bureau said on Saturday. Replacing the wardens’ combustion engine bikes would save 408 tonnes of carbon emissions through the service life of the vehicles, it said. The project would reduce the county’s emissions of particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers by 0.22 tonnes and 3.4 tonnes per year, it added. Hualien also provides residents a subsidy of up to NT$22,800 for every electric bike purchased to replace a motorbike in a bid to encourage electric vehicle ownership, it said.
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
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