Taiwan News
Date: 2016-09-06
By: Maggie Huang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Chunghwa Post announced Tuesday that the postage fee for surface parcels to 14 countries will be raised by up to 130% in 2017. The increased rate falls from 19% to 130%, which is about NT$30 to NT$70 per kilogram, depending on the distance and regulation of the country. In addition, the surface parcel service to Korea, Hong Kong, and Macau will be halted next year.

Due to the increase in operating costs, Chunghwa Post decided to adjust the parcel postage rate which hasn’t risen for almost 14 years, while the average postal fee is still lower than air mail.

The 14 said countries are Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Australia, the United States, Canada, Germany, France, the Netherlands and South Africa.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/09/06
By: Lu Hsin-hui and Romulo Huang

Taipei, Sept. 6 (CNA) The appointment of a presidential envoy to this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic

Cooperation Forum (APEC) summit is still in the planning stage, Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said Tuesday.

Commenting on a local media report that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has invited James Soong (宋楚瑜), chairman of the opposition People First Party, to be her personal envoy, Huang declined to confirm or deny it, saying only that the appointment is still being planned and that it will be made public once the envoy is named.

Taiwan’s national leader is usually invited to the annual APEC leaders’ meeting but is actually “barred” from attending in person because of Beijing’s opposition. Therefore, a special envoy is sent to stand in for the president.

This year’s APEC summit will be held Nov. 20 in Lima, Peru.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 07, 2016
By: Staff writer, with CNA

Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) on Monday said that Taiwan maintains “good and sustainable

relations” with the Holy See, amid speculation that efforts by the Vatican and Beijing to establish diplomatic relations are making progress.

Chen, who is on a visit to the Holy See, said the trip has helped reaffirm Taiwan’s partnership and dialogue with the Vatican, with which he said Taiwan shares common core values.

Issues concerning the Holy See’s interactions with Beijing were raised during his meeting on Sunday with Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, Chen said.

Parolin said that the Holy See’s dialogue with Beijing has mainly focused on church affairs, according to Chen.

Chen said he told Parolin that he understands Pope Francis’ hope to reach the 12 million Catholics in China and to appoint bishops there.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: September 7, 2016
By: The China Post news staff

TAIPEI, Taiwan — In an effort to support the government’s “New Southbound Policy,” the Shanghai

Commercial & Savings Bank (SCSB) Cultural and Educational Foundation has launched a NT$600,000 scholarship program for Malaysian Chinese students to study in Taiwan, according to a press release issued by SCSB.

At a ceremony held at SCSB’s head office in Taipei, the foundation’s Vice Chairman John Con-sing Yung, Secretary-General Chou Ching-hsiung, and SCSB’s Deputy General Manager Lin Chih-hong jointly granted a NT$600,000 check to Malaysia’s special envoy Dato’ Seri Tiong King Sing, who received the check on behalf of the students.

According to statistics issued by the Ministry of Education, over 16,000 students had come from Malaysia to study in Taiwan as of the end of 2015, accounting for half of the total students from the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

In order to help cultivate talent needed to improve economic and trade exchanges between Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries, the SCSB set up the Malaysian Chinese Students Scholarship program to encourage more students to study in Taiwan. Each qualified student receives NT$20,000.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: September 5, 2016

An international forum promoting exchanges between Taiwan-based nongovernmental organizations and

their overseas counterparts on the role of NGOs in the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change wrapped up Sept. 5 in Taipei City.

Themed Adapting to the Challenges—Living with Climate Change and Advancing toward the Future, the UNFCCC NGO Forum examined government responses to rising sea levels, the adaptation, civic capacity and participation of small island states, and the importance of public-private partnerships.

Organized annually by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Environmental Protection Administration, the one-day event highlights the commitment of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to enhancing awareness of the impact of climate change. Around 100 local and foreign academics, diplomats, experts, officials and NGO representatives took part in the event.

In addition to panel discussions, the forum featured keynote addresses by speakers including Gino Van Begin, secretary-general of Bonn-headquartered ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, and Jorgen Randers, professor emeritus of climate strategy at BI Norwegian Business School.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-09-05
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Mother Teresa has recently been declared a saint by Pope Francis. The Albanian nun founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950 and the order has built shelters in more than 130 countries around the world under her leadership. In the early 1980s, Mother Teresa instructed two nuns to stay in Taiwan to assist in establishing and managing a charity institution in Tainan and, later on, to build another shelter in Xizhi of New Taipei City to take care of hundreds of underprivileged and lonely elderly.

In a dinner banquet following the canonization ceremony of Mother Teresa in the Vatican on Sunday, Taiwan’s Vice President Chen Chien-jen mentioned her visit to Taiwan that took place on January 16, 1985, at the invitation of the then-President Chiang Ching-kuo.

Mother Teresa allegedly said, “Taiwanese society is becoming materially rich but spiritually poor.” She was also said to have reminded Chiang that it is easier to deal with insufficiency in material resource than in spiritual life. Mother Teresa was quoted as saying that “Taiwanese might probably be free from hunger but the thirst for God and for love can’t be ignored.”     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: September 6, 2016
By: Christine Chou

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower, 台電公司) employees embarked on a 15-day march

Monday, in protest of proposed amendments to the Electricity Act that they say would result in staggering increases to energy prices.

Protesters started off on the 500-kilometer walk from the No. 3 Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County Monday, with plans to reach the Executive Yuan and Control Yuan by Sept. 19.

Organizers said proposed Electricity Act amendments would cause a massive hike in electricity bills for households and small- and medium-sized businesses.

Around 100 people set off from the nuclear plant, but some 3,000 people are expected to join the march at various points along the route, organizers said.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: September 5, 2016
By: Chanda JL, Special to The China Post

TAIPEI, Taiwan — “Some things, once lost cannot be returned. Is it worth destroying millions of years

of natural environment and tribal village culture to build a hotel?” the film director Cheng Yu-chieh (鄭有傑) once remarked when asked about the costs of tourist developments on aboriginal land.

Cheng is the director of “Wawa No Cidal” (太陽的孩子), a 2015 film about a woman from the Amis tribe who returns to her hometown of Hualien, only to be taken aback by the spate of new tourist developments.

In recent years, the scenes in the film have been mirrored all along Taiwan’s east coast as companies have built scores of new hotels and resorts in an attempt to attract more visitors.

But these developments have affected the lives of the local indigenous peoples.

The indigenous peoples of Taiwan had lived here for centuries before their ancestral land rights were taken away, first under Japanese rule and later by the government of the Republic of China.     [FULL  STORY]