The China Post
Date: June 23, 2016
By: CNA

TAIPEI, Taiwan — President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) will leave Friday on a nine-day trip that will

take her to Panama and Paraguay, two of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, with stopovers in the United States, the Presidential Office confirmed Wednesday.

Tsai, making her first overseas trip since being inaugurated on May 20, is scheduled to return to Taiwan on July 2. She will make a transit stop in Miami on her way to Panama and in Los Angeles on her way back to Taiwan.

According to Tsai’s itinerary released by the Presidential Office, Tsai’s special China Airlines flight will arrive in Panama on June 25 local time.

The president will meet with an American congressional delegation in Panama for the inauguration ceremony of the expanded Panama Canal and visit the canal’s water gate later the same day.

On the following day, Tsai will visit the Taiwan-based Evergreen Group’s container terminal in Colon, hold meetings with leaders from other diplomatic allies of Taiwan, and attend a luncheon with Taiwan Scholarship recipients from Panama.     [FULL  STORY]

Should Taiwan’s stock market regulator take profits from listed companies and banks to fund startups?

The News Lens
Date: 2016/06/21
By: Yuan-ling Liang

A move by Taiwan’s securities regulator to set up an angel investment fund has drawn criticism

from within the startup community.

In early June, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) initiated a series of meetings with banks, insurance companies and investment firms to build support for Taiwan’s startup industry.

FSC chairperson Ding Kung-wha (丁克華), who took office in May, has proposed several new policies, including supporting companies that fund startups, promoting e-commerce, encouraging venture capital and setting up a new angel fund. Among the policies, the angel fund proposal has captured the most attention and generated controversy in the startup community.

The FSC wants to use 2% of the after-tax earnings from listed companies in Taiwan to set up the fund. However, it does not plan to force companies to participate. In 2015, the net profit of all listed companies was NT$18.3 trillion (US$567 billion), which scales the angel funds to about NT$400 billion.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-06-21
By: Sophia Yang, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

How many days in advance of a trip would you book accommodation? According to a survey, the Taiwanese traveler is above the world average and grabs second place in booking accommodation an average 40 days before a trip.

Not long before the survey was published, a MasterCard survey revealed that more than 65 percent of respondents spent an average of NT$46,706 or US$1,440 per trip overseas in the past year, surpassing the amount in Japan, Korea, and Singapore. Nearly 90 percent of Taiwanese people travel domestically with Kenting as the top destination, sequentially followed by Tainan and Taichung. Accommodation accounts for the largest share of domestic travels. According to another recent study conducted by Visa, Japan still topped the list of the most popular travel destinations among Taiwanese over the past three years, followed by Hong Kong and South Korea.

Agoda, the world’s leading online hotel reservation service provider, on Monday announced the results of its most recent Travel Smart study, which looked at millions of bookings made by Agoda travelers across the world in 2015 alone to see how early world travelers were booking accommodation. Hong Kong travelers are the earliest in the survey, booking their accommodation an average of 42 days before arrival. After Hong Kong travelers, Taiwanese, Australian and Russian travelers tied for second place, booking their accommodation an average of 40 days before a trip.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/06/21
By: Sophia Yeh and Romulo Huang

Taipei, June 21 (CNA) Taiwan is willing to and capable of participating in international

cooperation in order to contribute to the international community, Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said Tuesday.

Speaking with Salif Diallo, president of the National Assembly of Burkina Faso, at the Presidential Office, Chen noted that Taiwan is a democratic, free and peace-loving country, and is seeking to provide feedback to the international community in return for the assistance and support it has received over the years.

The vice president also expressed gratitude for the continuous and firm support that Burkina Faso has extended to Taiwan in its bid to join international organizations, including the World Health Organization, the International Civil Aviation Organization and other specialized agencies of the United Nations.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: June 22, 2016
By: Emily Chen, Laura Chen and Dimitri Bruyas,Special to the China Post

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Contemporary Dutch architecture differs greatly from the buildings of the 17th

century golden age, such as the Dutch Anping Fort (Fort Zeelandia) in Tainan City. At that time, buildings made of bricks and stone were mostly geometric, each serving one specific function: military, commercial or medical. By contrast, modern buildings are abstract, asymmetrical, concept-based and unpredictable. More importantly, they are polyvalent, meaning that they can be used for a variety of functions without any adjustment being required to the building itself.

Thanks to such flexibility, architecture better fits our contemporary living, such as the works of many Dutch architectural firms that can be found in Taiwan. When building in a different location, architects face an array of challenges, and it is during these situations that their flexibility and problem-solving expertise shines.

Taipei Performing Arts Center

Designed by OMA, a Dutch architectural firm, the Taipei Performing Arts Center’s (臺北藝術中心) innovative design combines three theaters into a single above-ground structure. Balancing government requirements, the client’s requests, and their own contemporary style, creating this performing arts center has proven to be no easy task.     [FULL  STORY]

The move occurs weeks after Taiwanese suspects in Kenya and Malaysia were sent back to China.

The News Lens
Date: 2016/06/20
By: J. Michael Cole

Cambodian authorities on Monday announced the imminent deporting of 13 Taiwanese fraud

suspects to China despite efforts by the Taiwanese government to have them repatriated to Taiwan.

According to Cambodian immigration officials, 13 Taiwanese and 14 Chinese nationals were arrested for alleged Internet fraud on June 13 in a raid at their villa in Phnom Penh. Soon thereafter, Taiwanese representatives contacted their Cambodian counterparts to ensure its nationals were sent back to Taiwan. Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports that the Taiwanese officials were unable to meet with the suspects.

“We have decided to deport them to China because they all are Chinese,” an immigration official told reporters on Monday, toeing the “one China” policy of Cambodia, one of Beijing’s closest and most dependent allies in Southeast Asia.

According to Reuters, Cambodia has deported more than 200 Chinese nationals since it launched a crackdown on Internet and telecoms scams in late 2015.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-06-20
By: Wendy Lee, Taiwan News, Staff Reporter

Panama’s Ambassador to Taiwan Alfredo Martiz, General Secretary of Panama’s Ministry of Industry and Commerce Eduardo A. Palacios, and Attache at the Embassy of the Republic of Panama in the Republic of China Raul Rodriguez Florez, on Monday morning visited I-Mei Foods Co, one of Taiwan’s largest food companies and store chains, and were impressed by the company’s facilities as well as its food safety and quality control.

Panama is considered the most important ally of Taiwan in Central America. President Tsai Ing-wen is scheduled to visit Panama and Paraguay from June 24 to July 2, during which time she will attend the inauguration ceremony for the expansion of the Panama Canal, and then head for Paraguay. Both nations have diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

I-Mei Foods Co General Manager Luis Ko expressed welcome to the visit by the Panamanian important officials, saying that hopefully the visit will contribute to the friendship between Taiwan and Panama, and increase potential for further cooperation between the two sides.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/06/20
By: Chen Wei-ting and Kay Liu

Taipei, June 20 (CNA) The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) on Monday forecast high

temperatures and mostly sunny weather for Taiwan through Wednesday, with heavy afternoon thunderstorms in some areas.

Under the influence a high pressure system from the Pacific Ocean, Taiwan will experience mostly sunny weather Monday in Taiwan, with daytime highs ranging between 33 and 36 degrees Celsius, the CWB said Monday morning.

Eastern Taiwan, southeastern areas and Hengchun in the extreme south are likely to see scattered showers on Monday, while thunderstorms and torrential rains can be expected in mountainous regions of central and southern Taiwan on Monday afternoon, the CWB said.

It also warned of “very high” or “extreme” ultraviolet levels around the country between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Monday, which it said can lead to sunburn after 15-20 minutes of exposure.     [FULL  STORY]