The China Post
Date: October 10, 20170
By: Joseph Yeh

TAIPEI (CNA) – President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) treated visiting foreign dignitaries to a

cup of Taiwan’s signature bubble milk tea as they took part in Double Ten National Day celebrations at a reception Tuesday that was attended by some 4,000 guests.

Tsai joined Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sosene Sopoaga, Honduran Second Vice President Ava Rossana Guevara Pinto and Paraguay’s Supreme Court head Luis Maria Benitez Riera, for a tour of various booths at the Taipei Guest House offering a wide range of local and international cuisines.

The group stopped at the booth of Hanli Tea House, which offers the internationally acclaimed Taiwan bubble milk tea, which Tsai introduced to Sopoaga and Guevara.

Prior to Tsai’s arrival at the reception, Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) also showed the guests to another booth providing guabao, or pork belly buns, a traditional Taiwanese snack.    [FULL  STORY]

Radio Taiwan International
Date: 2017-10-09

Premier William Lai says the government will come up with a new proposal related to

working hours that will protect laborers’ rights while at the same time offering employers more flexibility.

The government revised the labor law last December to give workers “one fixed, and one flexible day off” per week. However, the revision did not allow flexibility, making things even more difficult for both employers and employees.

Lai said Monday that the proposal will offer a “safer and more flexible” system, like the one adopted by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
[FULL  STORY]

Countries covered by the New Southbound Policy are most interested in cooperating with Taiwan in the agricultural sphere…

Taiwan News  
Date: 2017/10/10
By:  Central News Agency

Countries covered by the New Southbound Policy are most interested in cooperating

with Taiwan in the agricultural sphere, according to Minister without Portfolio John Deng (鄧振中).

In an interview with CNA at the end of September, Deng said Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Myanmar have all taken the initiative to seek cooperation with Taiwan, hoping to increase the value of their agricultural products and improve their farming skills.

The trend bodes well for Taiwan’s future exports of seeds, farm machines and equipment, and related agricultural products to countries covered by the New Southbound Policy, which should grow by more than 5 percent annually, Deng said.

Also, overall agricultural trade with those countries will grow over 10 percent per year, he said.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/10/09
By: Flor Wang

Taipei, Oct. 9 (CNA) A record high of 37.9 degrees Celsius was reported in Hsinchu

County at 11:59 a.m. Monday, an all-time October high since the Hsinchu weather station was established in 1938.

The previous high for an October temperature at the weather station — 35.3 degrees — was recorded in 2007, according to a local forecaster.

The Central Weather Bureau forecast earlier in the day that the area between Hsinchu and Chiayi will experience sunny skies and high temperatures. It urged the public to stay hydrated when outdoors to prevent heatstroke, and to cover up to ward off sunburn.
[SOURCE]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/10/07
By: Yang Su-min and Kuan-lin Liu

Taipei, Oct. 7 (CNA) With an increasing number of Taiwanese keeping cats as pets,

the Council of Agriculture (COA) is looking to include cats in its regulations on the management of the sale of specific animals, an official said on Saturday.

In an interview with CNA, Chiang Wen-chuan (江文全), chief of the COA’s animal protection division, revealed the council’s plans to amend its Regulations for Particular Animal Industry Management, which currently only covers dogs, to include cats.

Chiang said the amendment is necessary to supplement the Animal Protection Act.

The Act requires anyone who “operates breeding, trading and lodging business of specific breeds of pets” to possess a permit, but it currently only applies in practice to those in the dog business because dogs are the only “specific breed” cited in the COA’s regulations, leaving the sale of cats open to abuse.    [FULL  STORY]

CLOSE SCRUTINY:Each caucus member is to be allowed to join two of the four task forces, which are to operate continually, to enable swifter decisionmaking

Taipei Times
Date: Oct 08, 2017
By: Chen Yu-fu  /  Staff reporter

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus has outlined plans to form four task

forces focusing on proposed constitutional reforms; the one fixed day off, one flexible rest day workweek policy; tax reform; and energy policy.

The caucus on Friday called an internal meeting, during which it tapped KMT legislators Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安), William Tseng (曾銘宗) and Wang Hui-mei (王惠美) to devise strategies on constitutional reform, the workweek policy, tax reform and energy policy respectively.

Calling the appointments “restructuring” within the caucus, KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) said it created the task forces based on the success of a similar model it employed while monitoring the Cabinet’s Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program.

The four units are expected to bolster arguments put forward by the KMT caucus when it scrutinizes the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) governance, Lin said, adding that the National Policy Foundation — the KMT’s think tank — would also help.    [FULL  STORY]