DIPLOMACY
Paraguayan group arrive
Paraguayan Minister of Information and Communication Technologies Gustavo Emigdio Villate Samaniego arrived in Taiwan yesterday for a five-day visit to learn from the nation’s latest developments in the fields of technology, economy, higher education and Internet security. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which invited Villate and his delegation for the trip, said the Paraguayan delegates are scheduled to visit the Administration for Cyber Security, overseen by the Ministry of Digital Affairs, and the National Health Insurance Administration, overseen by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, as well as the National Science and Technology Council, National Communications Commission and National Institute for Cyber Security during their stay until March 21. The delegates are also to visit the Taiwan Semiconductor Research Institute, Hsinchu Science Park, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Chunghwa Telecom and take part in two exhibitions — the Smart City Summit and Expo, and Net Zero City Expo, the ministry said. The visitors also include President of Taiwan-Paraguay Polytechnic University Jorge Daniel Duarte Rolon and Villate’s adviser Horacio Jose Caniza Vierci. Established in May 2018, the Taiwan-Paraguay Polytechnic University or Universidad Politecnica Taiwan Paraguay is a joint project with funding from Taiwan’s government.
TRADE
Sunflowers helped growth
The Sunflower movement in 2014 has paved the way for Taiwan’s economic development, an academic said on Friday ahead of the 10th anniversary of the protests against economic integration with China. The Sunflower movement was triggered by a decision by the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) controlled legislature to fast-track the review and approval of the cross-strait services trade agreement with China. On March 18, hundreds of students broke into the Legislative Yuan to block the agreement and occupied it until April 10, while thousands demonstrated outside the complex. To date, the agreement with China remains stalled in the Legislature. Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research assistant researcher Wang Guo-chen (王國臣) said Taiwan’s growth rate averaged 3 percent from 2014 to last year, while Hong Kong, despite its strong economic ties with China, grew at an average rate of 1 percent. This suggests that the proposed pact between Taiwan and China would not have guaranteed improved economic conditions or provided a bigger incentive for foreign investment into Taiwan at the time, he said.
TOURISM
Tour group license revoked
The Tourism Administration has revoked the operating license of a Taipei-based tour company, We Love Tour, over a funding incident that resulted in about 300 Taiwanese tourists being stuck in Vietnam last month. The cancellation of the license followed a three-month business suspension ordered by the agency for We Love Tour on Feb. 16, after 292 Taiwanese tourists who booked with the travel firm were stranded in the Southeast Asian country on a Lunar New Year holiday tour to Phu Quoc Island. The incident resulted from a payment dispute between We Love Tour and a Vietnamese travel agency. Despite the people being flown back to Taiwan a few days later following two-way negotiations mediated by the Travel Quality Assurance Association, the Tourism Administration imposed fines totaling NT$1.46 million (US$41,212) on We Love Tour.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner