Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday arrived in Tel Aviv for a four-day visit and was scheduled to make his first stop at an Israeli company developing automatic guided vehicles.
Before boarding his flight from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Saturday evening, Ko said he was visiting Israel to honor an invitation by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs to attend the 33rd annual International Mayors’ Conference.
Ko said he wanted to visit the company because Israel is famous for its robust ventures and start-ups, adding that he would also visit the Weizmann Institute of Science, which is similar to Academia Sinica.
Photo: CNA
The Israeli institute has six Nobel Prize laureate members, Ko said, adding that it is impressive that Israel, which has a population of about 9 million, has several Nobel Prize winners.
He said he was more interested in visiting the research institute because he is a university professor.
Ko is scheduled to visit Mobileye NV in Jerusalem, attend the conference’s opening ceremony and a dinner event in the evening, and attend a moonlight tour of the old city, accompanied by Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion.
He would also meet with Israeli lawmakers and has especially asked to meet those familiar with national defense policies, the Taipei City Government said.
Separately yesterday, Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) left for Kuala Lumpur on a five-day visit to Malaysia and Singapore to promote the city’s agricultural products and tourist attractions.
It is Han’s first official overseas visit since his victory in the local elections in November last year, which ended the Democratic Progressive Party’s 20-year governance of the city and delivered it to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Before departing from Taoyuan airport, Han said that he would focus on seeking distribution channels and orders for Kaohsiung’s farm and fishery products, adding that he also hopes to convey the message that “Kaohsiung is opening its arms to all cities, nations and territories” of the world.
He plans to meet with Taiwanese expats and entrepreneurs in Malaysia and Singapore, and “introduce the new and vibrant Kaohsiung to them,” he added.
Meanwhile, former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), who is seeking the KMT’s nomination in next year’s presidential election, returned home yesterday after concluding an eight-day visit to Silicon Valley in California.
Upon his arrival at Taoyuan airport, Chu said that he visited 13 major enterprises with links to Taiwan’s new economy, and met with Taiwanese entrepreneurs, engineers, students, high-tech professionals and compatriots in Silicon Valley.
His visits and meetings were aimed at finding a new direction to boost Taiwan’s economy, he said.
He also visited Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, Chu said.
At Stanford, he delivered a speech on developing Taiwan’s new economy, which refers to new, high-growth industries that are on the cutting edge of technology and are the driving force of economic growth, he said.
In his speech, he explained his plan to drive the nation’s economy by using “three engines” — the start-up economy, the cultural economy and the living economy — Chu said.
In terms of promoting the start-up economy, Chu expressed the hope that the movement of talent, technology and capital in Taiwan will be as free as in Silicon Valley.
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
The government would cancel kendo practitioner Su Yu-cheng’s (蘇郁程) nationality if he is confirmed to have represented China in the World Kendo Championships in Milan, Italy, last week, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. “We have consulted the Sports Administration and were told that athletes participating in the championships must have the nationality of the country that they represent. They must also present their passports as proof,” council spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a weekly news conference. “If Su indeed represented China in the championships, we suspect that he has obtained Chinese nationality.” The Act Governing Relations Between the People of the
FATAL ILLNESS: Untreated symptoms can rapidly worsen to complications such as high fever, seizures and loss of consciousness, and can be life-threatening, a doctor said Hospitals have been reporting dozens of people with heat-related illnesses every day over the past week, given continuous high daytime temperatures, so recognizing the early signs of heatstroke is crucial in preventing serious complications, a Taipei City Hospital emergency physician said. The Central Weather Administration yesterday issued a heat alert for 19 cities and counties across Taiwan, with temperatures in New Taipei City, Miaoli County and Pingtung County likely to exceed 38°C, and temperatures in 12 cities and counties likely to exceed 36°C for three days straight. More than a dozen people were taken to hospitals for heat-related illnesses every day from