President-elect William Lai (賴清德) yesterday visited the Asia UAV AI Innovation Application R&D Center in Chiayi County to get an insight into Taiwan’s emerging drone industry, before visiting defense units in southern Taiwan in preparation for taking over the presidency in May.
Like his recent engagement with semiconductor companies in Hsinchu, Lai said the purpose of the visit was to engage in face-to-face dialogue with industry operators.
The vice president said his upcoming administration looks forward to working with domestic drone businesses as they overcome challenges, continue making advances and expand their global reach.
Photo from William Lai’s Facebook page
Uncrewed surface vessels have great development potential and are expected to bring new advances to the domestic drone industry, Thunder Tiger Corp chairman Chen Kuan-ju (陳冠如) told Lai.
Drones can also play a land, sea and air deterrence role, he said.
Taiwan operates three types of commercial drones for military use, not including uncrewed surface vessels, which could play an essential role in deterring Chinese vessels from entering Taiwan’s territorial waters, he said.
Drones have played a key role in the Russia-Ukraine war and have become a major emerging industry in the past few years, a business operator who preferred not to be named said.
Taiwan’s highly developed information and communications technology industry could serve as an important foundation in the development of drone technology, the person added.
Lai said that national defense and the economy are the two pillars that support the survival and development of a country.
Besides visiting several sites relevant to major industries, the president-elect said that he also intends to get a grip on matters related to national defense and national security before he takes office on May 20.
Lai spent the afternoon visiting an air defense military unit in southern Taiwan. The exact location was not disclosed.
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
The Civil Aviation Administration yesterday said that it is considering punishments for China Airlines (CAL) and Starlux Airlines for making hard landings and overworking their cabin crew when the nation was hit by Typhoon Kong-rey in October last year. The civil aviation authority launched an investigation after media reported that many airlines were forced to divert their flights to different airports or go around after failing to land when the typhoon affected the nation on Oct. 30 and 31 last year. The agency reviewed 503 flights dispatched by Taiwanese airlines during those two days, as well as weather data, flight hours
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Three people have had their citizenship revoked after authorities confirmed that they hold Chinese ID cards, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said yesterday. Two of the three people were featured in a recent video about Beijing’s “united front” tactics by YouTuber Pa Chiung (八炯) and Taiwanese rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源), including Su Shi-en (蘇士恩), who displayed a Chinese ID card in the video, and taekwondo athlete Lee Tung-hsien (李東憲), who mentioned he had obtained a Chinese ID card in a telephone call with Chen, Liang told the council’s weekly news conference. Lee, who reportedly worked in
RSS