Taiwan News
Date: 2016-08-17
By: George Liao,Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau Director General Tseng Tzu-wen Wednesday visited the Malaysia Chinese Tourism Association (MCTA) and airline operators in an effort to join hands with the city’s mosques and Halal-certified international hotels to create a Muslim friendly environment and attract more Muslim visitors.

The City’s Tourism Bureau has promoted Kaohsiung tourism in Malaysia by holding an event in Kuala Lumpur, during which the bureau introduced the rich tourism resources of the city to local travel agencies, media and airlines and showed the video “Kaohsiung Bravo,” which is starred by Malaysian students in Taiwan.

Tseng said that 1,420,000 tourists from Southeast Asia visited Taiwan last year, of which 430,000 came from Malaysia and 390,000 from Singapore, accounting for the highest and second highest percentage of visitors from this region.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/08/17
By: Elaine Hou

Taipei, Aug. 17 (CNA) The United Kingdom has strong trade and investment ties with Taiwan and is seeking to advance bilateral trade relations, with bilateral trade talks planned for September, the U.K.’s outgoing representative to Taiwan said Wednesday.

Lauding the U.K.’s strong trade and investment relations with Taiwan, Chris Wood — head of the British Office in Taipei — said the latest figures available on U.K. trade and service exports to Taiwan show a 2.3 percent year-on-year increase in 2014 to reach their second-highest level at 1.9 billion pounds (US$2.47 billion), while the total value of bilateral trade was 5.8 billion pounds.

Taiwan ranks as the U.K.’s No. 6 trading partner in the Asia-Pacific (behind China, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore), and is the U.K.’s 32nd-largest trading partner globally, he said. One of the strongest-performing exports to Taiwan continues to be scotch whisky, he added.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: August 18, 2016
By: Chanda JL, Special to The China Post

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The NATO Association of Canada has said that Taiwan had been

victimized by last month’s Hague ruling on the South China Sea.

In an article published on the association’s website, research analyst David Sutton said that though “The Hague ruling wished to restrict the Asian giant China … it ended up affecting Taiwan.”

Sutton said that the case, which was brought to establish the legal rights of the Philippines in the South China Sea, had harmed an “unrecognized but abiding member” in Taiwan.

The article rebuts the ruling’s finding that Taiping should not be classified as an island, which would entitle it to a 200-square-kilometer exclusive economic zone.

Pointing to Article 121 of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, which defines an island as “a naturally formed area of land, surrounded by water,” the article argues that Taiping’s status “should not be up for dispute.”

Sutton says that Taiwan had maintained a cooperative approach to disputes in the South China Sea, pointing to the Agreement Concerning the Facilitation of Cooperation on Law Enforcement in Fisheries Matters (台菲漁業事務執法合作協定), which was finalized between the Philippines and Taiwan last year. The agreement was prompted by hostilities between the two sides in the SCS that resulted in the death of a Taiwanese fisherman two years ago.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-07-29
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The date marks the anniversary of the inclusion of aboriginal rights in the Constitution, which took place on August 1, 1994. The amendment also abandoned the previous official name for the indigenous residents, who were sometimes disparagingly described as “mountain compatriots.” Taiwan officially counts 14 indigenous peoples, with more than 530,000 members or about 2.3 percent of the population.

The government’s Council of Indigenous Peoples was the author of the proposal for a national day. Council officials said the 1994 constitutional amendments allowed the indigenous Taiwanese for the first time to use a name of their own choice, symbolizing the regaining of self-respect and the acquisition of a correct position in society.

The anniversary also reminds Taiwanese about their history, since the indigenous peoples have been present on the island for at least 6,000 years.

The China Post
Date: July 31, 2016
By: CNA

TAIPEI–Two cyclists were hit and killed on the Suhua Highway in Eastern Taiwan Saturday by a taxi that lost control at high speed, apparently because its driver was drunk, police said.

Video footage from a roadside surveillance camera captured the moment when the taxi lost control at a curve near the 156.3 kilometer mark of the highway, before swerving sideways into the opposite lane.

The moment the taxi hit the cyclists occurred outside of the camera frame, but pictures of the aftermath showed the taxi’s hood smashed in and two badly damaged bicycles lying nearby.

The cyclists, who were heading north from Hualien, were not breathing and had no pulse when the ambulance arrived and were pronounced dead after being rushed to the hospital, according to the police.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-07-31
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Minister of Labor Kuo Fan-yu said on Saturday night that there is no “reprieve” or “turnaround” on the “one day off every seven days” measure for workers.

The Department of Labor (DOL) has earlier abolished an interpretation letter that came into force in 1986 to establish the policy of one day off in every seven days for workers, which will be effective from Aug 1. On the night of July 30, the Executive Yuan announced a resolution at a press conference, requiring the DOL to issue administrative discretion standards regarding the measure within two months to protect labor rights.

Kuo said since the government revoked the interpretation letter, its enabling statue, Clause 36 of the Labor Standards Act, which requires at least one rest day in every seven-day period, is biding once again.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/07/30
By: Fan Ching-yi and Frances Huang

Hanoi, July 30 (CNA) A ranking official from Vietnam said Saturday that Taiwan-based

conglomerate Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, 台塑集團) has paid half of the compensation it had pledged for alleged pollution caused by a steel mill run by the Taiwanese business group in central Vietnam.

Tran Hong Ha, Vietnam’s natural resources and environment minister, said in a televised meeting held by the country’s parliament, that FPG paid US$250 million in compensation on July 28 for the damage inflicted by the pollution, and the other half of the compensation — US$250 million — is expected to be paid on Aug. 28.

The Vietnamese minister said that the government has placed the US$250 million worth of compensation from FPG in a single bank account and will distribute the funds to the victims of the pollution case and also use the funds to clean the toxic waste discharged by the FPG’s steel complex, Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corp., located in the Vung Ang Economic Zone in Ha Tinh Province, central Vietnam.    [FULL  STORY]