‘REGRETTABLE’:A proposal by the NPP to set the minimum pension at the median disposable income of NT$22,208 per month was supported only by the NPP caucus

Taipei Times
Date: Jun 23, 2017
By: Sean Lin / Staff reporter

A motion by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to set the minimum monthly pension for retired

civil servants, including public-school teachers, at NT$32,160 (US$1,056) passed its second reading yesterday.

Lowest-level civil servants would be paid the minimum pension, according to a goal set by the DPP administration to gradually decrease civil servants’ and public-school teachers’ average income replacement ratio from 75 percent to 60 percent over 15 years.

A draft proposed by KMT Legislator Alisha Wang (王育敏) that seeks to set the minimum pension at NT$36,155 — a figure determined after factoring in bonuses some basic civil servants receive — was defeated after 67 of the 97 legislators present voted against it.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/06/21
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—Members of the Spoken English Presentation Class sponsored by Tainan City Government’s Civil Service Development Institute showed impressive results of their learning in a recent presentation as the city is counting on them to become a strong force to present the city to international tourists, the institute said on Tuesday.

Last year the institute sponsored the class for the first time and successfully trained 29 members, who have since then been helping the city government in the handling of international affairs and promoting English as the city’s second official language.

Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) has been leading Taiwan in the effort of making English the city’s second official language. He has set a 10-year agenda for the endeavor, vowing to use English to bring the world to Tainan and market the city to the world.

Civil Service Development Institute director Hsu Ying-feng (許瑛峰) said that in the past when international visitors came to visit the city government, the only way to communicate with them was by hiring translators, which was usually costly and not very satisfactory as they could not convey what the city had been doing to the point.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/06/21
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—Members of the Spoken English Presentation Class sponsored by Tainan City Government’s Civil Service Development Institute showed impressive results of their learning in a recent presentation as the city is counting on them to become a strong force to present the city to international tourists, the institute said on Tuesday.

Last year the institute sponsored the class for the first time and successfully trained 29 members, who have since then been helping the city government in the handling of international affairs and promoting English as the city’s second official language.

Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) has been leading Taiwan in the effort of making English the city’s second official language. He has set a 10-year agenda for the endeavor, vowing to use English to bring the world to Tainan and market the city to the world.

Civil Service Development Institute director Hsu Ying-feng (許瑛峰) said that in the past when international visitors came to visit the city government, the only way to communicate with them was by hiring translators, which was usually costly and not very satisfactory as they could not convey what the city had been doing to the point.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/06/21
By: Christie Chen and Huang Kuo-fang

Taipei, June 21 (CNA) Twenty-two Taiwanese nationals, 14 of whom are former citizens of Vietnam,

were charged Monday with forging birth certificates to bring Vietnamese children and youths to Taiwan, the Yunlin District Prosecutors’ Office announced Wednesday.

Prosecutors began investigating the case last year after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported a suspicious case in which a child who was supposed to have been born to a Taiwanese father and a Vietnamese Taiwanese mother was actually born in Vietnam, while the mother was in Taiwan.

After months of investigation, prosecutors found that 14 Vietnamese Taiwanese nationals each paid between US$3,000 and US$7,000 to brokers in Vietnam between 2013 and 2016 for fake birth certificates for 17 children of their Vietnamese families and relatives, so that the children could be disguised as their own and obtain Taiwanese passports, the prosecutors said.

Officials did not approve passport applications for three of the children and youths because they found something suspicious during the process, but 14 were allowed to enter Taiwan and 11 eventually obtained Taiwanese citizenship, the prosecutors said.    [FULL  STORY]

A magnitude 4.5 tremor shook Tainan with Qigu District reporting an intensity level of 5

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/06/22
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A magnitude 4.5 earthquake struck near Tainan in southern Taiwan at 7:36

a.m. Thursday morning, according to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB).

The epicenter of Thursday’s tremor was located 29.5 kilometers northwest of Tainan City Hall, at a depth of 5.8 kilometers, according to the CWB.

A relatively high intensity level of 5 for a quake of this size was felt in Tainan’s Qigu District, with the bureau attributing the higher intensity to the area’s soft soil and close proximity the epicenter. Tainan’s Jiali District felt an intensity level of 4. Yet, Tainan’s Xinhua District only felt an intensity level of 2 and its Yongkang and Shanhua districts only experienced a level 1.

Regions that reported an intensity of 1 in Taiwan included Sihu and Gukeng in Yunlin County and Dacheng in Changhua County.    [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: June 21, 2017
By: CNA

TAIPEI, Taiwan — More than 50 percent of the respondents to a recent survey said they are opposed

to the idea of paying higher electricity rates in order to eliminate the use of nuclear power, according to the results of the survey, released Wednesday.

About 52.6 percent of the respondents said they are unwilling to pay higher power prices for the goal of making Taiwan nuclear-free, while 42.3 percent said they are willing to do so, according to the results of the survey by the National Policy Foundation, a Taipei-based think tank affiliated with the opposition Kuomintang (KMT), to gauge the public’s opinion of the Democratic Progressive Party government’s energy policy.

The survey also found that 53.9 percent said they did not agree with the idea that all of Taiwan’s nuclear power plants should stop operations to make the country nuclear free, despite the threat of power shortages, while 33 percent agreed with the idea.

Nearly 47 percent of the respondents expressed support for resumed operations of the No. 1 reactor at the second nuclear power plant and the No. 2 reactor at the third nuclear power plant to generate electricity, and 32.5 percent said they are opposed to the idea, the survey shows.    [FULL  STORY]

Two young Taiwanese fashion designers share their experience in doing sustainable fashion.

The News Lens
Date: 2017/06/20
By: Olivia Yang

Sustainable fashion is becoming a trend; brands like H&M, Zara and MUJI already have their own “eco”

fashion collections and related design awards are being held annually around the world.

The EcoChic Design Award, organized by Hong Kong-based environmental NGO Redress, started out as a sustainable fashion design competition in Hong Kong six years ago. Since then, it has expanded to a competition cycle open to designers in Asia, Europe and the U.S. Winners have the chance to work with fashion brands on their sustainable collections and receive mentorship with prominent designers.

Taiwanese designers Hung Wei-yu (洪威宇) and Sung Yi-hsuan (宋怡萱), both 24, are among the 10 finalists in this year’s EcoChic Design Award. The News Lens spoke with the two young designers via Skype to learn about their experience in the industry and what inspired them to start creating sustainable fashion designs.

The News Lens: What sparked your interest in fashion and then onto sustainable fashion?

Hung Wei-yu: I studied fine arts through middle and high school. During that time I would always think about how fine arts could interact with people more or how it could be integrated into our daily lives. So then I started thinking about how to combine arts with product design. It just so happened I was involved with theater in high school and started doing costume design. This sparked my interest in the industry and so I went on to study fashion design at Fu Jen Catholic University (in Taipei).
[FULL  INTERVIEW]

A boy, born into a family of wealth and fashion, chose to lead a simple life but continued his passion for photography.

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/06/20
By: Juvina Lai, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Born into a wealthy family and a son of an American diplomat, he is now the first Tibetan monk photographer from the west.

Nicholas Vreeland is the son of an American diplomat and grandson of Diana Vreeland, the legendary editor of Vogue magazine.

Born into a family of fashion, Nicholas grew up seeing the world of fashion and was trained to be an elegant man: suit pockets to be kept clean and placed with white handkerchief, shoes to be shining bright. Who would have thought after several years he would go on to become a Buddhist monk.

Most interesting is that he is the first one among the Tibetan Buddhists from the west.

From the age of 13, Nicholas had a keen interest in photography. He would borrow cameras to practice his skills, which he got from his talented grandmother. At the age of 15 he began assisting a famous photographer.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/06/20
By: Elaine Hou

Taipei, June 20 (CNA) Taiwan will send “agriculture youth ambassadors” to the Philippines and

Indonesia in an effort to promote bilateral exchanges under the “New Southbound Policy,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday.

The ministry said it is organizing the new program in partnership with the Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture to strengthen cooperation in agriculture with Southeast Asian countries.

Under the program, 30 young adults will be selected and sent to the two countries in mid-September on a weeklong visit, the ministry said.

Half will be sent to the Philippines and the other 15 to Indonesia, it added.    [FULL  STORY]