First snow of season blankets nation’s peaks
The Lalashan Forest Reserve (拉拉山自然保護區), home to more than 120 Formosan cypresses estimated to be more than 500 years old, was also covered with snow. Visitors to the Taipingshan National Forest Recreation Area in Yilan County yesterday enjoy snow-clad views along one of the area’s footpaths. People wave the national flag after climbing to the top of Qixingshan in Taipei’s Yangmingshan National Park yesterday. A snowman made by visitors to Qixing Park in Taipei’s Yangmingshan National Park is pictured yesterday. As cold weather is expected to persist into next week, people should be mindful of staying warm, especially those with seniors, children or people with chronic conditions in their homes, the department said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 08, 2021 15:56 UTC
New passports ready for distribution from Monday
New passports ready for distribution from MondayBy Kayleigh Madjar / Staff writer, with CNAThe first batch of 500,000 passports with a new design is ready for distribution from Monday, and foreign governments, airlines and government agencies have been notified about the change, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday. Preparations for the rollout are complete, with 500,000 passports ready for distribution, Bureau of Consular Affairs Director-General Phoebe Yeh (葉非比) told a regular news conference in Taipei. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Central Taiwan Office head Weng Ying-min holds new, left, and old passports at the office in Taichung’s Nantun District on Wednesday. People can apply for the new passport no matter where they are or when their current passport expires, she said. This means that about 1.3 million passports have expired or are set to expire in less than a year, Yeh said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 08, 2021 15:56 UTC
Technology products lift exports 12% to new record
Technology products lift exports 12% to new recordBROAD RECOVERY: Technology exports took the lead amid favorable demand, while non-technology shipments rose 2 percent to 15 percent in their respective sectorsBy Crystal Hsu / Staff reporterTaiwan’s exports last month clocked another 12 percent upturn from a year earlier to a record US$33 billion, as 5G smartphones and other new technology applications ramped up business for local component suppliers, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said yesterday. Meanwhile, strong demand for laptops, servers, and other information and communication technology (ICT) products showed no sign of receding as COVID-19 infections spike around the world, Tsai said. Electronics exports soared 22.2 percent to US$12.76 billion, while shipments of ICT products gained 17.6 percent to US$4.77 billion, jointly contributing about 50 percent to overall exports, ministry data showed. Optical products, mainly flat panels, posted the fastest advance of 27 percent year-on-year, Tsai said. Exports rose 11.7 percent year-on-year to US$97.21 billion last quarter, stronger than the November forecast of 7.8 percent by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Tsai said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 08, 2021 15:56 UTC
Forex losses, falling prices cause Nanya profit drop
Last quarter, net profit plunged 43.6 percent to NT$911 million (US$32.01 million), compared with NT$1.61 billion in the previous quarter. Earnings per share fell to NT$0.3 last quarter, compared with NT$0.53 a quarter earlier and NT$0.42 a year earlier, the lowest since the second quarter of 2016. For the whole of last year, net profit contracted 19 percent to NT$7.67 billion, from NT$9.83 billion in 2019. Excluding the effect of unfavorable foreign exchange rates, the chipmaker said that net profit last quarter would have surpassed that of 2019. To fund the technology upgrade, Nanya plans to raise capital expenditure for this year to NT$15 billion, from NT$8.47 billion last year.
Source:Taipei Times
January 08, 2021 15:56 UTC
Enoch Wu joins bid for DPP Taipei chapter chairperson
Enoch Wu joins bid for DPP Taipei chapter chairpersonBy Jason Pan / Staff reporterEnoch Wu (吳怡農), one of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) rising stars, yesterday registered for the race to head its Taipei chapter, with the vote scheduled for Jan. 31. New Frontier Foundation deputy chief executive Enoch Wu, center, submits an application to enter the race for the Democratic Progressive Party’s Taipei chapter chairperson at the party’s Taipei headquarters yesterday. Surrounded by the press, Wu, the deputy chief executive officer of the New Frontier Foundation, yesterday morning filled out the registration papers at the DPP Taipei chapter office. He is viewed as a strong potential contender for the Taipei mayoral race next year. Another candidate for the Taipei chapter post is former Taipei city councilor Yen Sheng-kuan (顏聖冠), who is the daughter of former DPP Legislator Yen Chin-fu (顏錦福).
Source:Taipei Times
January 07, 2021 15:56 UTC
Yangmingshan Park to appeal fine over deaths of buffaloes
Yangmingshan Park to appeal fine over deaths of buffaloesBy Shelley Shan / Staff reporterThe Yangmingshan National Park Service on Wednesday said it would appeal a NT$75,000 fine from the Taipei City Animal Protection Office, which accused the park of causing the deaths of water buffaloes by corralling them with fences. In the past few months, 24 dead water buffaloes have been found in Yangmingshan (陽明山), the office said. Water buffaloes walk in Yangmingshan National Park in Taipei on Wednesday. The park service said that there has yet to be a determination on which agency would be responsible for the water buffaloes. In that scenario, the park service could manage them as part of natural resources in the park, the council said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 07, 2021 15:56 UTC
Tsai urged to ask US to save ship’s crew
18’s vessel monitoring system (VMS), Fisheries Agency Deputy Director-General Wang Cheng-fang (王正芳) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. The Taipei Rescue Coordination Center and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have been brought in to request US assistance in locating the ship, he said. The agency coordinated with four nearby ships to visit the last known coordinates of the unresponsive ship, Wang said. Tsai has instructed Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) to call Lee’s family to express her concern to them, he added. The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Honolulu has asked the US Coast Guard to send ships to help with search-and-rescue efforts, the ministry said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 07, 2021 15:56 UTC
Commission seeks to return ill-gotten assets to owners
Commission seeks to return ill-gotten assets to ownersBy Chen Yu-fu and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writerThe Transitional Justice Commission is drafting a bill that would return ill-gotten assets to the families of wealthy businesspeople and landowners whose assets were confiscated during the White Terror era, the commission said on Monday. A total of 177 people had their properties confiscated during the White Terror era, Formosan Political Prisoners’ Association honorary director-general Tsai Kuan-yu (蔡寬裕) said. The commission would submit a draft act this month, and would seek to compensate victims’ families either through the return of assets or monetary compensation, it said. The commission looked at more than 500 cases of confiscated assets listed among records held by the Ministry of National Defense, including 300 that were only recently uncovered, it said. The 3.2-hectare plot is one of the properties confiscated from Huang Tien-liang, he added.
Source:Taipei Times
January 07, 2021 15:56 UTC
Battery exchange robbed five times since opening
Battery exchange robbed five times since openingBy Huang Shu-li and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writerAn environmentalist in Yunlin County who makes cushioned footstools for people to buy with used batteries has been robbed five times in six months, he said on Tuesday. Hsieh Wen-ta, an environmental campaigner and footstool and curtain maker, holds a cushioned footstool at his kiosk in Yunlin County on Tuesday. Hsieh began promoting battery recycling 20 years ago over concerns about the damage discarded batteries do to the environment. His recycling kiosk, which is next to the county’s Environmental Protection Bureau, is the first of its kind in Taiwan, he added. Over the past 30 years he has recycled about 7 million batteries, and given away nearly 30,000 footstools, he said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 07, 2021 15:56 UTC
Police investigate delivery driver brawl in Jhubei City
Police investigate delivery driver brawl in Jhubei City‘BAD BEHAVIOR’: A woman who ordered the meal that led to the disagreement told police that an argument over her address was no reason to resort to violenceBy Liao Hsueh-ju / Staff reporterHsinchu County police were yesterday investigating a brawl in Jhubei City (竹北市), involving two food delivery drivers over a dispute with a security guard. An image captured from a closed-circuit camera shows an altercation between an Uber Eats driver and a residential security guard in Hsinchu County on Wednesday. Photo: Tsai Ya-hsuan, Taipei Times“Hsu then used a messaging app to contact two friends, one of whom is a delivery driver for Foodpanda. It was bad behavior and the delivery driver needs better training,” the police quoted her as saying. Uber Eats said in a statement that it regretted the incident.
Source:Taipei Times
January 07, 2021 15:56 UTC
Caution likely to limit presale units
The central bank has capped the loan-to-value ratios for purchases by corporate and multiple home owners at 55 to 65 percent, as well as on unsold houses and land financing, in a bid to curb price hikes. “The presale market has a chance of breaking records this year on the back of continued economic growth, excessive liquidity and low interest rates,” My Housing Monthly research manager Ho Shih-chang (何世昌) said. The under-construction Diamond Tower complex, an urban renewal project near the Zhongxiao-Fuxing MRT Station in Taipei, is pictured yesterday. Presale projects in Hsinchu last year fell 10 percent to NT$100 billion, weighed down by the COVID-19 pandemic. Presale projects in northern Taiwan last year rose a total of 27 percent to NT$1.28 trillion, compared with the 13 percent increase seen in 2019, My Housing Monthly reported.
Source:Taipei Times
January 07, 2021 15:56 UTC
US Capitol riot regrettable, foreign minister Wu says
US Capitol riot regrettable, foreign minister Wu saysBy Lee Hsin-fang and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writerMinister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) yesterday expressed regret over the riots at the US Capitol on Wednesday, while reminding Taiwanese in Washington to remain on high alert. Asked to comment on the riots at a news conference at the Executive Yuan in Taipei, Wu said that it was regrettable to hear of the incident and that the ministry would continue to monitor the situation. Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu answers questions from reporters at a news conference at the Executive Yuan in Taipei yesterday. In contrast with the state department’s announcement, the Executive Yuan only said that the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was witnessing a peak in US-Taiwan relations. Both sides have worked closely on regional security and trade issues, and any international collaborations that would aid in efforts to maintain Taiwan’s democracy would be fully supported by the government, the Executive Yuan said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 07, 2021 15:56 UTC
Virus Outbreak: Medigen to begin phase 2 vaccine candidate trials
Virus Outbreak: Medigen to begin phase 2 vaccine candidate trialsBy Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporterMedigen Vaccine Biologics Corp (高端疫苗) on Wednesday said it plans to begin phase 2 clinical trials next week for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate and expects to apply by the end of June for emergency use authorization for the drug. The company received NT$1.7 million in government subsidies for its phase 1 trials and would receive another NT$300 million for its phase 2 trials. Hsieh said that he is confident about the phase 2 clinical trials, as Medigen’s vaccine candidate showed good immunogenicity in the phase 1 trials and no participants showed any serious adverse reactions or fever. Medigen is thus far the only company in Taiwan to proceed to phase 2 clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine. It would be given access to a government Web site that has recruited more than 200,000 volunteers for domestic COVID-19 vaccine trials.
Source:Taipei Times
January 07, 2021 15:56 UTC
DPP legislator calls for TutorABC probe
DPP legislator calls for TutorABC probeBy Huang Hsin-po and Kayleigh Madjar / Staff reporter, with staff writerDemocratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) yesterday called for an official investigation into the online English-language education platform TutorABC, amid concerns that it is skirting restrictions on Chinese investment in the education industry by labeling itself as a technology company. TutorABC is the largest online English-language education platform in Taiwan, constituting a significant proportion of the market, Lin told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei TimesChina’s Ping An Insurance Group in 2019 purchased a controlling stake in iTutorGroup, which reportedly operates the TutorABC brand, Lin said. Many Chinese media reports have also called TutorABC a subsidiary of Ping An Insurance, Lin added. With its 200,000 members in Taiwan, TutorABC holds a considerable amount of personal data valuable to China, Lin said.
Source:Taipei Times
January 07, 2021 15:56 UTC
FSC to boost whistle-blower rewards
FSC to boost whistle-blower rewardsBy Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporterThe maximum reward for people who report financial crimes would be raised to NT$4 million (US$140,701) next week, a 10-fold increase to encourage whistle-blowers, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) told a news conference in New Taipei City yesterday. For lower-level crimes drawing fine of between NT$200,000 and NT$1 million, whistle-blowers would receive NT$50,000, also five times higher than the current amount, he said. It has paid NT$2.32 million in rewards since the program began, the FSC said. The commission would investigate information provided by anonymous whistle-blowers, but would not issue rewards in such cases, he said. “A few anonymous whistle-blowers claimed rewards after reporting companies that were fined or sentenced.
Source:Taipei Times
January 07, 2021 15:56 UTC