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.
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
RSS