The China Post
Date: July 27, 2016
By: John Liu, The China Post

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Boycotted by corporations, the Labor Ministry convened base wage review

meeting concluded on Tuesday without reaching any substantive agreement.

While the meeting was attended by 14 government and labor representatives, all seven corporate representatives chose to sit out the event yesterday.

The corporate representatives said their absence was a means to express their discontent with a pending policy that would give workers more vacation days.

The meeting was held yesterday anyway, since the number of attendees reached the legal minimum. However, the absence of corporate representatives prevented the attendees from reaching a conclusion.

In a media briefing after the meeting, a Labor Ministry official said that, should corporate representatives once again fail to attend, the government and labor representatives would not continue to be courteous and would go ahead with forging deals.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-07-25
By: Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The Legislature voted 72-31 Monday evening to approve the ruling Democratic Progressive

Party’s (DPP) version of the name of a statute aimed at handling the ill-gotten political party assets.

The bill, which has been blocked countless times in the past when long-time ruling party Kuomingtang (KMT) was the majority in the Legislature, is on the law making body’s agenda on Monday. Even though the KMT has different opinions on many aspects of the bill, the DPP, with its majority in the Legislature, managed to pass the bill during the extra session.

The KMT has opposed the name of “assets improperly obtained.” KMT caucus Secretary-General Lin Te-fu said the name of the bill is targeted specifically at the KMT. However, the DPP said it will not back down on the name.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: July 25, 2016

Taiwan is aiming to develop into a global manufacturing hub for intelligent machinery and

high-end equipment, Premier Lin Chuan said July 21 at a Cabinet meeting.

Tung Chen-yuan, spokesman of the Executive Yuan, said at a press conference after the Cabinet meeting that Lin emphasized the Intelligent Machinery Program is one of President Tsai Ing-wen’s five major industrial development objectives. Lin directed relevant ministries and agencies to work closely with local governments on integrating research organizations and academia with the industry and devising measures to help industry members create brand names and reach global markets, Tung said.

Deputy Economics Minister Shen Jong-chin said during the press conference that the government’s strategy is to take advantage of the strength of the machinery industry in central Taiwan’s Taichung City, as well as the counties of Changhua, Yunlin and Chiayi, and to transform the sector’s focus from precision machinery to intelligent machinery. Local high-tech firms will increase their use of technologies such as cloud computing, big data and intelligent robotics to help make this vision a reality, he said.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/07/25
By: Ku Chuan and Christie Chen

Taipei, July 25 (CNA) The administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is taking steps to

expand job opportunities for Southeast Asian immigrants in the tourism industry, particularly for tour guides, in keeping with the government’s new southbound policy.

During a joint briefing Monday, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) and the Tourist Guide Association of the Republic of China advised Southeast Asian immigrants on the procedure for obtaining tour guide licenses.

The briefing was held in line with the government’s new southbound policy, which is aimed at increasing the diversity of Taiwan’s trade partners so that the country would not be over-reliant on the Chinese market, the NIA said.

Noting that the number of Southeast Asia travelers and immigrants in Taiwan is rising, the NIA said the government hopes to help spur an increase in the job opportunities for Southeast Asian-language tour guides and boost tourism from that area.     [FULL  STORY]

SKELETONS:The KMT’s Wu Den-yih said the party should return all its assets that were not obtained in a justifiable way, or they would forever be a ‘cash machine’ for the DPP

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 26, 2016
By: Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporter

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday evening issued a

strongly worded statement, calling the legislature’s passage of the Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例) “unconstitutional.”

“The so-called ‘Democratic Progressive’ Party used ‘majority violence’ to pass a bad law that is illegal, unconstitutional, anti-democratic and against the rule of law, in an attempt to shape a political environment for ‘one-party dictatorship’ for its selfish ends. This is a sad event for Taiwan and for Taiwanese democracy,” Hung said in the statement.

Earlier yesterday, before the bill’s passage, Hung had said the bill would push the nation’s democracy backward and aggravate social divisions.

Hung made the remarks yesterday morning in Yilan County, on the sidelines of the funeral of former Yilan County commissioner Lu Kuo-hua’s (呂國華) mother, which coincided with the legislature’s discussion of a bill to deal with the KMT’s ill-gotten assets.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Post
Date: July 26, 2016

A couple looks on at the Xindian River on Monday, July 25. The Taipei City Government has launched a special river bus that tours the Tamsui River and the Xindian River at night. Buskers will perform on board on holidays including Valentine’s Day. The service is provided between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets will be available online for NT$100.     [SOURCE]