Kung Ming-Shin, minister of The National Development Council (NDC) will be leading a delegation group to visit Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Lithunania, the MOFA announced on Tuesday. The delegation would comprise government officials and business representatives from sectors such as information and communication technology, precision medicine and electric vehicles, he said. Some disease prevention specialists would accompany the delegation during the visit, he added. A Slovak delegation had planned to visit Taiwan in May, but due to a local COVID-19 outbreak the visit was rescheduled. During the visit to Slovakia, the delegation would discuss the planned Taiwan trip with their counterparts, Chen said.

Value of presale housing expected to soar in the fallBy Crystal Hsu / Staff reporterPresale housing projects are expected to soar 64.5 percent year-on-year to NT$269.03 billion (US$9.71 billion) in northern Taiwan in the autumn sales season from Sept. 28 through next month, as local cases of COVID-19 and social distancing rules prompted developers to push back launches, the Chinese-language My Housing Monthly said on Thursday last week. The name of a Yuanlih Group presale housing project is displayed at a construction site in Taipei’s Wenshan District on July 22. Taipei has also reported an increase in new apartments of less than 30 ping (99m2), as few people want large homes, Ho said. New housing projects in Taoyuan total more than NT$50 billion, mostly concentrated in Jhongli (中壢) and Cingpu (青埔) districts with asking prices approaching NT$500,000 per ping, the magazine said. Yilan County reported the lowest value for expected new housing projects in northern Taiwan at NT$2.7 billion, it said.

Chinese newspaper urges rules for ads on medical beautyReuters, BEIJINGChina’s People’s Daily newspaper said it was “imperative and urgent” to regulate advertisements bombarding people with recommendations for cosmetic surgery, procedures and treatments, as the ads have become excessive, with some making false claims. The People’s Daily said that some advertisements associate good looks with “high-quality,” “diligence” and “success,” fabricating stories about “plastic surgery changing one’s destiny” and distorting aesthetic perceptions. Last month, the Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation drafted guidelines to regulate the medical aesthetics sector’s advertising practices, saying that they were prompting societal anxiety over people’s looks. Demand for plastic surgery or medical aesthetic treatment has boomed in China in the past few years, with procedures to make one’s eyes wider or nose higher among the most popular. However, the ads have been criticized for failing to caution people about risks.

Childlike Mourinho hails ‘incredible’ AS Roma victoryAFP, MILANAS Roma coach Jose Mourinho said he felt like a child when charging from his dugout to celebrate Stephan El Shaarawy’s last-gasp winner in a thrilling 2-1 victory over US Sassuolo, which put his side top of Serie A in his 1,000th match as a manager. Italy international El Shaarawy struck with a sublime curling strike in the 91st minute, causing wild celebrations at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, with Mourinho running to join his joyous players in front of screaming supporters behind the goal. “Today I wasn’t 58 years old, I felt like a 10, 12, 14-year-old, back when you begin to dream about a career in football. Roma’s Stephan El Shaarawy, left, scores the team’s second goal in their Serie A match against US Sassuolo at Stadio Olimpico in Rome on Sunday. AS Roma fans wave flags as a picture of coach Jose Mourinho is displayed on the big screen before the match against US Sassuolo at Stadio Olimpico in Rome on Sunday.

China targets Alipay in tech crackdown‘UNRULY GROWTH’: The Chinese government believes the technology industry’s monopoly power comes from its control of data and wants to end that, a source saidAFP, BEIJINGChinese regulators have ordered sweeping changes to the country’s biggest payment app Alipay (支付寶), as the Chinese Communist Party attempts to rein in “the unruly growth” of the tech giants. “The government believes big tech’s monopoly power comes from their control of data,” the source close to financial regulators told the newspaper. Ma’s business empire has been targeted in a wider crackdown on tech firms aimed at breaking monopolies and strengthening data security that has wiped billions off companies’ valuations. The ministry has summoned executives from the country’s online platforms to emphasize the need to stop shutting out each other’s services, Zhao said. However, it is unclear what actions regulators want the big tech firms to take, and by when.

Adimmune yesterday said that the Indonesian trials would determine the optimal dosage for its vaccine to generate adequate protection against COVID-19 variants and prove its efficacy. The name of Adimmune Corp is pictured at the company’s headquarters in Taichung in an undated photograph. Despite encountering a setback in Taiwan, Adimmune did not modify the formula of its COVID-19 vaccine, dubbed AdimrSC-2f, nor its recombinant protein manufacturing technology, Pan said. Instead, the company plans to apply to the Indonesian regulator to conduct a phase 3 trial there, he said. As with Moderna Inc, Adimmune would consider combining its flu vaccine into COVID-19 vaccine if its candidate is approved, although that mixture would not be a focus for research and development at this time, Pan said.

The latest tally suggested a gain of 44,000 people, which lifts the number of employees to 8.06 million. Manufacturing sectors raised the number of workers by 15,000, hotels and restaurants by 12,000, and retailers and wholesale operators by 7,000, the statistics agency said. Photo: Liao Cheng-hui, Taipei Times“The job market started to see the effect of conditional opening and continued to heal in the absence of major cluster infections,” DGBAS Deputy Director Chen Hui-hsin (陳惠欣) told a news conference in Taipei. The improvement gathered further steam in August, thanks to families taking advantage of the summer vacation before the school year began this month, Chen said. The recovery in take-home pay was most obvious among restaurants and hotels at 3.75 percent, Chen said.

UAE to spend US$6.5bn to boost private-sector jobsMAJOR EMPLOYER: Many Emiratis pass up private-sector jobs to work in better-paying government positions, with foreigners making up for the shortfallBloombergThe United Arab Emirates (UAE) is to spend 24 billion dirhams (US$6.5 billion) on a package of benefits and subsidies designed to reduce citizen unemployment by making private-sector jobs more attractive. As in much of the Persian Gulf, the UAE government is the employer of choice, with many college graduates rebuffing offers from private companies while they wait for state jobs with better pay, benefits and working hours. Millions of foreigners from all over the world fill most private-sector jobs. The government’s aim is to absorb 75,000 citizens into private-sector jobs over the next five years. Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a UAE political science professor, said the government should not shoulder the burden alone.

Vienna marathon winner disqualified over his shoe solesReutersEthiopia’s Derara Hurisa on Sunday won the Vienna City Marathon, but was disqualified soon after when the soles of his shoes were found to be 1cm too thick in contravention of the rules. Hurisa crossed the line with a time of 2 hours, 9 minutes, 22 seconds, but less than 45 minutes later was left distraught when his time was struck off as his shoe soles were 5cm thick. The soles of road running shoes cannot be thicker than 4cm and Hurisa had worn a different set of shoes to the ones he had mentioned on his form. Ethiopia’s Derara Hurisa celebrates after winning the Vienna City Marathon in Austria on Sunday. He was later disqualified for wearing shoes with soles that were 5cm thick.

Science parks chart record revenueBy Angelica Oung / Staff reporterTaiwan’s three science parks posted a record combined revenue of NT$1.71 trillion (US$61.69 billion) for the first half of this year, up 25.2 percent year-on-year and the fastest increase in almost eight years, the Ministry of Science and Technology told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. The three parks — Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區) and the Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學園區) — generated combined exports of about NT$1.28 trillion in the first six months of the year, also a new high, the ministry said. From left, Department of Academia-Industry Collaboration and Science Park Affairs Director-General Andrea Hsu, Southern Taiwan Science Park Bureau Director-General Su Chen-kang, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Chen Tzong-chyuan, Minister of Science and Technology Wu Tsung-tsong, Hsinchu Science Park Bureau Director-General Wayne Wang and Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau Director-General Hsu Maw-shin pose for a photograph at a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, has a presence at all three science parks, accounting for 17 percent of overall revenue in Hsinchu Science Park, 42.27 percent in the Central Taiwan Science Park and 55 percent in the Southern Taiwan Science Park, ministry data showed. It predicted whole-year growth of 15 percent for the three science parks’ combined revenue this year.

The US smartphone brand stopped offering adapters and earpods to buyers in October last year when it launched the iPhone 12 series. Apple has announced that it is to launch its iPhone 13 series at 10am on Tuesday Pacific time. Consumers’ Foundation secretary-general Hsu Tse-yu, center, speaks at a news conference in Taipei yesterday. “Apple said that it stopped providing adapters and earpods to protect the environment. “We will examine the company’s market share and its market power before determining if its sales model would exclude market competition,” he said.

EDITORIAL: ‘One China’ compromise crumblingAnother year, and another UN General Assembly is convening without Taiwan. However, unlike previous years, Taiwan seems to be riding a higher wave of support than usual. Cracks are opening wider at all levels, from town halls to huge multilateral organizations such as the UN and the WHO. What was once an acceptable compromise to keep Beijing happy is now being seen for the danger it poses. Even if Taiwan is not readmitted into the UN any time soon, it does not mean that the nation cannot speak out.

Macau’s pro-democracy camp loses ground in vote marred by low turnoutAFP, HONG KONGMacau’s pro-democracy camp has lost further ground in the territory’s legislature, according to preliminary results yesterday from an election marred by low turnout and a ban on “disloyal” candidates. Authorities in Macau had disqualified 21 candidates — most of them from the pro-democracy camp — from Sunday’s election on national security grounds. Macau Chief Executive Ho lat-seng casts his ballot at a polling center during a legislative election in Macau on Sunday. The other 19 lawmakers include 12 indirectly chosen from professional sectors and seven appointed by Macau’s chief executive. The disqualification of pro-democracy candidates in Macau followed similar rulings in Hong Kong, where authorities have moved to crush dissent and the territory’s pro-democracy movement with a National Security Law and a radical electoral overhaul.

Live-fire Han Kuang exercises beginBIOLOGICAL AGENT: A containment exercise was held in southern Tainan, in response to a mock assault where troops were assumed to be attacked by bioweaponsStaff writer, with CNAThe live-fire component of this year’s annual Han Kuang military exercises, Taiwan’s major war games involving all military branches, began yesterday morning and is to run until Friday to test the armed forces’ capability to fend off a Chinese invasion. The ships’ early departure is a preventive measure in anticipation of enemy bombardment of Taiwan’s ports, a military source said. A C-130 Hercules transport plane delivers maintenance personnel, equipment and supplies to Chiashan Air Base in Hualien County yesterday during this year’s Han Kuang military exercises. The Han Kuang exercises have been held annually since 1984 in the form of live-fire drills and computerized war games. The live-fire exercises were originally scheduled to start on July 12 and run for five days.

Job market likely to gain from GDP growth: pollBy Crystal Hsu / Staff reporterTaiwan’s labor market might benefit from stable GDP growth next quarter, as 24 percent of companies plan to increase payroll, while 4 percent plan to lower headcounts, a quarterly survey released yesterday by ManpowerGroup showed. The majority, or 69 percent, were not planning any changes, the human resources firm said after polling 1,030 local employers. Job gains are expected in seven of Taiwan’s industrial sectors between next month and December, it said. Hiring intentions in the manufacturing sector stood at 30 percent, followed by 24 percent in the transportation and utilities sector, and 22 percent in service-focused sectors, the survey found. The leisure and hospitality sector remained the weakest performer, with hiring intentions standing at 7 percent, it said.