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.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
EARTHQUAKE: Taipei and New Taipei City accused a construction company of ignoring the Circular MRT’s original design, causing sections to shift by up to 92cm The Taipei and New Taipei City governments yesterday said they would seek NT$1.93 billion (US$58.6 million) in compensation from the company responsible for building the Circular MRT Line, following damage sustained during an earthquake in April last year that had shuttered a section for months. BES Engineering Corp, a listed company under Core Pacific Group, was accused of ignoring the original design when constructing the MRT line, resulting in negative shear strength resistance and causing sections of the rail line between Jhonghe (中和) and Banciao (板橋) districts to shift by up to 92cm during the April 3 earthquake. The pot bearings on
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
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