Ministry welcomes US pledge of vaccinesVACCINE DIPLOMACY: Vaccine donations from the US and Japan show that democratic countries are standing with Taiwan, despite pressure from Beijing, a DPP legislator saidStaff writer, with CNAThe Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday welcomed a US pledge to donate 750,000 COVID-19 vaccines to Taiwan, saying it sends a strong and clear message of support for the nation. Taiwan is the first country for which the US has officially announced the specific number of vaccine doses it would receive after saying it would share its vaccine reserve, the ministry said in a statement. A US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III freighter is parked at Songshan Air Force Base in Taipei after its arrival yesterday. Photo: Lin Cheng-kun, Taipei TimesThe White House on Thursday said that of the first 25 million vaccine doses, 19 million would be distributed through the COVAX program. Japan donated 1.24 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which arrived on Friday.

The NT$300 (US$10.82) administration fee for the jabs would be waived from today, eliminating all out-of-pocket fees for government-funded COVID-19 vaccines, the center said. On Saturday, the CECC said that the fee would not be covered by a NT$4 billion COVID-19 relief budget approved last week. Photo: Ting Wei-chieh, Taipei TimesPart of the funding would be allocated to local governments for setting vaccine sites, it said. Taipei and New Taipei City offer the subsidized jabs to medical workers, epidemic prevention workers and other workers at higher risk of COVID-19 exposure, while the rest of the nation only offers the free vaccines to medical workers. As of Thursday last week, 678,418 doses had been administered nationwide, the CECC said.

First Financial cuts growth expectations for fee incomeBy Crystal Hsu / Staff reporterState-run First Financial Holding Co (第一金控) has trimmed its growth target for fee income and its wealth management business this year as the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak could weigh on investment sentiment, the bank-focused conglomerate told an online earnings conference on Monday last week. “We have adjusted earnings expectations in the wake of the virus outbreak and cut our growth target for wealth management this year from 15 percent to 10 percent,” First Financial investment relations head Anne Lee (李淑玲) said. Net income at its main subsidiary, First Commercial Bank (第一銀行), rose 32.8 percent year-on-year to NT$4.4 billion, but Lee said that fee income, the group’s main profit driver, would remain vulnerable during the outbreak, with the pinch more evident in its wealth management business. The profit expected from wealth management this year has been adjusted to NT$4 billion, down from the NT$4.4 billion previously forecast, she said, adding that the NT$8 billion projected previously from overall fee income would be somewhat affected. The business would hopefully make a substantial contribution if things return to normal next quarter, she said.

Salary at listed firms rises 4%FIRST PLACE: Foxconn Technology Co, a subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, registered an average annual wage of NT$4.19 million and a total of 171 employeesBy Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporterThe average annual salary of employees at publicly listed firms last year rose 4 percent year-on-year to NT$967,021 (US$34,884), beating the nation’s GDP growth of 2.98 percent, but the firm with the highest average wage offered 12.5 times more than the one with the lowest, indicating uneven salary growth in Taiwan, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) said. In 2019, Swancor Holding Co (上緯投控) had the highest average annual wage at NT$5.16 million and home appliance supplier Taiwan Sanyo Electric Co (台灣三洋) the lowest at NT$327,000. Global Brands Manufacture Ltd (精成科技) was the exception: The firm produces printed circuit boards and had an average wage of NT$3.46 million. Retail conglomerate Mercuries & Associates Holding Ltd’s (三商投資控股) average wage ranked ninth at NT$3.23 million, followed by Lien Hwa Industrial Holdings Corp (聯華實業投資控股) with NT$3.2 million. As for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), its average annual wage ranked 18th at NT$2.39 million, with 47,908 employees.

Keelung District Court fines man for police baton attackBy Lin Chia-tung and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writerA man who assaulted a driver with a police baton in a traffic altercation must pay NT$2,000 for carrying a banned weapon in his vehicle, the Keelung District Court ruled last month. The man, surnamed Chang (張), 47, was driving along an alley of Keelung’s Renyi Road when the vehicle driven by a man surnamed Chou (周) blocked his way, the court filing showed. Chang approached Chou with the baton, leading to an altercation in which both men were injured, it showed. A Taiwan High Speed Rail security guard displays a baton on a platform in Taipei Railway Station on May 13. A police source said that 31 items on the standard-issue police equipment list are banned for civilian use.

COVID-19: Tourism relief not enough: trade groupLOOKING FOR MORE: Last year, travel agencies only had to contend with losses from fewer foreign travelers, but this year domestic tours have also been suspended, it saidBy Cheng Wei-chi and Jake Chung / Staff reporters, with staff writerA tourism industry group yesterday criticized the government’s COVID-19 special relief funding for tourism, saying that the government had allocated less money for the industry than last year, despite a worse outbreak situation. Travel Quality Assurance Association president Tony Hsu (許禓哲) told an online news conference that the nation’s tourism industry has suspended all foreign group tours indefinitely due to the pandemic. Subsidies granted to travel agencies for suspended tours totaled NT$154 million, or NT$10,000 per tour group, for a maximum of eight groups per travel agency. Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei TimesAssociation spokesman Lee Chi-yueh (李奇嶽) said that subsidies for group tours should not be a fixed sum, but should be based on the size of the group tour being suspended. The association said that the MOTC should match the MOEA subsidies, offering a flat NT$10,000 per employee and from NT$10,000 to NT$50,000 based on the size of a group, for losses incurred due to suspended group tours.

In particular, residents of western and northeastern Taiwan as well as mountainous areas in southern Taiwan should take precautions, forecasters said. Scooter riders get drenched by rain at an intersection in Kaohsiung yesterday. The rainfall was concentrated in Keelung, Taipei and New Taipei City, with Yilan County, Taoyuan and Taichung receiving less rain, Wang said. The water volume at Taoyuan’s Shihmen Reservoir (石門水庫) increased to about 2.28 million cubic meters, or 19.21 percent of capacity, up from 17.26 percent before the rains, it showed. The level at Keelung’s Sinshan Reservoir (新山水庫) rose to 87.47 percent of capacity, the data showed.

Jen, who headed the weather forecasting center at the Central Weather Bureau, made history in 1993 as the nation’s first professional meteorologist to present the weather on the news when he appeared on Taiwan Television (TTV). When the Japanese took over in 1895, they immediately launched weather stations in Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Hengchun, adding Taitung station five years later. This version of the Taipei Weather Station was used between 1897 and 1937. In 1963, Taiwan set up its first weather radar stations in Hualien and Kaohsiung with UN funding. After a series of deadly storms and floods, the government launched a 10-year program in the late 1970s to revamp the nation’s weather observation capabilities.

People look at the Pillar of Shame, a monument that commemorates the victims of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, at the University of Hong Kong yesterday. Photo: AFPChow, 37, is one of the vice chairs of the Hong Kong Alliance, which organizes the annual vigil. Police officers escort a woman holding flowers and an electric candle out of Victoria Park in Hong Kong yesterday. Authorities banned this year’s gathering citing the COVID-19 pandemic — although Hong Kong has not recorded an untraceable local transmission in more than a month. Unable to muster en masse, many Hong Kong residents still found other ways to mourn the dead.

Medigen share price spiral stretches to five daysVACCINE WORRIES: An analyst attributed the company’s declining share price to market corrections and questions over locally developed vaccines against COVID-19By Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporterMedigen Vaccine Biologics Corp’s (高端疫苗) share price yesterday plunged by the daily limit of 10 percent for the fifth consecutive day, closing at NT$230.5 amid questions over locally produced COVID-19 vaccines. However, the company’s share price has plummeted by the daily limit since Monday, closing at NT$350 on Monday, NT$315 on Tuesday, NT$284 on Wednesday and NT$256 on Thursday, the data showed. Yesterday’s closing price was down 44.8 percent from its peak last year, although it was still up 137 percent for the year to date, the data showed. In yesterday’s trading, 2.09 million shares changed hands, with foreign institutional investors buying a net 4,867 shares and dealers selling a net 28,000 shares, the data showed. In a telephone call with the Taipei Times, an analyst attributed the falling share price to market corrections and questions over locally developed COVID-19 vaccines.

COVID-19: KMT calls for vaccine policy protest‘BOGUS PAPERWORK’: Minister Chen makes up regulations for groups that want to help with the supply of vaccines, preventing their import to Taiwan, a party official saidBy Shih Hsiao-kuang and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writerThe Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday called on the public to launch nationwide protests against the government’s COVID-19 vaccine policy tomorrow. People should protest at home by taking photographs of themselves holding up signs with the slogan “support healthcare workers, we want vaccines” and post them on Facebook under a hashtag for the protest. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alex Fai yesterday leads members of the KMT legislative caucus in a protest outside the Presidential Office Building in Taipei. Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei TimesAfter medical workers said that this might disrupt their work, the KMT changed its protest call. KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said that even with Japan’s donation of 1.24 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine yesterday, Taiwan still needs more vaccines.

CECC reports 339 new local COVID-19 infectionsBy Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporterThe Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 339 new local cases of COVID-19, two imported cases, 133 backlogged cases and 21 deaths. Of the new local cases, 170 are male and 169 female, aged younger than five to older than 100, with an onset of symptoms from April 1 to Thursday, the center said. Miaoli County Government staff yesterday spray disinfectant in an area that people who have been confirmed to have COVID-19 have visited. In addition to outbreaks in Taipei and New Taipei City, the CECC is trying to contain an outbreak in Miaoli, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, told a daily news briefing in Taipei. The company, based in Hsinchu City, has two plants in Miaoli’s Jhunan and Tongluo (銅鑼) townships.

Banks reduce business hours amid virus alertBy Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporterSeven banks would reduce their business hours at 40 branches combined to protect their employees and help limit the spread of COVID-19, the banks said. DBS Bank Taiwan (星展台灣) would adjust operating times at seven branches to 9am to 1:30pm from Monday, closing two hours earlier than normal, it said in a statement. The exterior of a DBS Bank Taiwan branch is pictured in Taipei yesterday. E.Sun Commercial Bank (玉山銀行) modified operating hours at one branch in New Taipei City’s Tucheng District (土城) to 10am to 2pm from yesterday, it said. Seven other banks, including Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行), King’s Town Bank (京城銀行) and Taichung Commercial Bank (台中商銀), also announced adjusted branch hours.

DGBAS raises its forecast for GDP growth this yearOUTBREAK DEPENDENT: Private consumption rose 4.66 percent last quarter and might expand 2.75 percent this year, down from a previous estimate of 3.74 percentBy Crystal Hsu / Staff reporterThe Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) yesterday raised its forecast for Taiwan’s GDP growth this year to 5.46 percent, up 0.82 percentage points from its projection in February as the global economic scene grew more favorable for exports and private investment. A COVID-19 outbreak in Taiwan is much worse than last year, but would not affect manufacturing activity or slow the export-focused economy, if it can be brought under control by next quarter, DGBAS Minister Chu Tzer-ming (朱澤民) said. Local steel makers have won extra orders after China introduced a carbon-neutral policy that has caused a global supply crunch, it said. In addition, local firms continue to shift production lines from overseas amid a global supply chain realignment, it said. Securities houses also reaped a windfall as daily turnover in local bourses augmented drastically, thanks to a spike in foreign and retail participants, the DGBAS said.

COVID-19: Relief subsidies to workers paid out since yesterdayBy Lee Hsin-fang, Wu Su-wei and Jake Chung / Staff reporters, with staff writerThe first payments of the government’s latest COVID-19 relief funding were wired into residents’ bank accounts at midnight yesterday. NPP Legislator Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said that businesses in the tourism industry should receive higher relief subsidies. Part-time employees in the service sector should also receive subsidies, she said, adding that currently only those who work full-time in the sector benefit from the program. Chiu said that firms that receive subsidies should be barred from laying off workers, while blue-collar workers should benefit more from relief programs. The Democratic Progressive Party caucus has said that an extraordinary legislative session should be held within the next to weeks, focused on COVID-19 relief funding.