A ministry of oceans or a council on maritime affairs should be created so that the nation can assert sovereignty over its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), Aviation Safety Council Chairperson Hwung Hwung-hweng (黃煌煇) said yesterday.
Hwung made the remarks at a forum on emerging ocean technology and boosting the nation’s competitiveness, which was organized by the Kaohsiung City Government and the Forward-looking Society.
Apart from its territorial waters that extend for 12 nautical miles (22.2km), Taiwan can also claim sovereignty over its EEZ, which can be seven times larger than the nation’s area and extend up to 200 nautical miles, he said.
The government should demarcate its EEZ as soon as possible so that its neighbors — such as China, Japan and the Philippines — would seek negotiations, he said.
Appointed council chairperson in December 2015, Hwung is a renowned hydraulic and ocean engineering expert and was president of National Cheng Kung University from 2011 to 2015.
The nation needs more professionals and equipment to develop its offshore wind energy industry, especially when foreign developers are expected to prompt an investment of NT$2 trillion (US$67.7 billion) in the sector, forum speaker and National Taiwan Ocean University vice president Hsu Tai-wen (許泰文) said.
Many components of the industry are still wanting, such as underwater heritage documentation and techniques for welding, ocean engineering and wind turbine maintenance, Hsu said, adding that professional vessels — such as geophysical survey ships, jack-up barges, heavy-lifting ships, turbine construction vessels and service crew vessels — are also lacking.
Divers and specialists trained for public relations, negotiation or translation are insufficient, he said.
The domestic ocean engineering industry is taking off, but institutions have difficulty recruiting students, as parents cannot envision the industry’s future, Taiwan Oceanic Research Institute director Wang Chao-chang (王兆璋) said.
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
RSS