Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/05/29
By: Hsieh Chia-chen and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, May 29 (CNA) A total of 213,093 babies were born in Taiwan in 2015, an increase of 0.8 percent from the previous year, according to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of the Interior.

Meanwhile, the number of babies born to a mother who is a foreign national, accounted for 6.1 percent, down 0.1 percentage points from the previous year. The rate was a sharp fall from 2005, when 12.9 percent of babies were born to non-Taiwanese mothers, according to the statistics.

Mothers aged 25 to 34 gave birth to more babies than any other age group last year, with the average age of the mothers of newborns rising to 31.7 years from 31.5 in 2014.

The average age was 30.9 among mothers from Southeast Asia, 31.4 among mothers who are Chinese, Hong Kong or Macau citizens, and 31.7 among mothers who are Taiwanese.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: May 30, 2016
By: Loa Iok-sin / Staff reporter

Executive Yuan spokesman Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said he would be available to

journalists 24 hours a day after he was criticized for saying that he would only answer media queries through the Cabinet’s media group on the social networking app Line and urging reporters not to raise questions elsewhere to protect his quality of life and ease his workload.

“To avoid [media outlets] from making a scoop, to lower my workload and maintain my quality of life, I will no longer answer queries from media outlets individually. If you have any questions, please raise it in our Line group for the media. I will answer them to be fair to everyone else,” Tung said in a statement sent at 11:10pm on Saturday via the Executive Yuan’s official Line group for the media.

“I hope this model would work better for all and if you have a better suggestion, you can raise it here and we can discuss it,” he wrote.

The statement triggered uproar among journalists, with many reporting the story as breaking news.     [FULL  STORY]

The News Lens
Date: 2016 / 05 / 28
By: Edward White

President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) first week in office saw a handful of quick, popular decisions by the new DPP-led government. Taiwan’s participation in international affairs continues, as did the anti-Tsai rhetoric from across the Taiwan Strait.

For the kids

One of the new administration’s first actions was to withdraw the former

government’s criminal charges against 126 Sunflower Movement protesters. Activist leaders welcomed the decision and are now pushing for an investigation of police and officials involved in the alleged use of excessive force during the 2014 protests.

The Ministry of Education (MOE) decided schools in Taiwan are no longer allowed to punish students who choose not to wear uniforms. The move, which Tsai had backed during the election campaign, was seen as a victory for many high school protests groups around the island.

Greening Taiwan

The new director of the Environment Protection Administration (EPA) moved to ban mining in Taiwan’s national parks. The decision means that Asia Cement will have to stop mining in Taroko Gorge National Park when its current permit expires next year. While the decision has pleased environmental groups, it has drawn criticism from the company, which argues that its operation was in place prior to the park’s creation in 1986 – the mine is understood to be the only mining operation in a national park.

New Economics Minister Lee Chih-kung (李世光) reaffirmed the government’s ambitious plans to make Taiwan nuclear free by 2025, CNA reports.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-05-28
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Foreign Minister David Lee said Saturday that the rejuvenation of diplomatic personnel was an important task following reports that more than half of Taiwan’s representatives overseas were older than 60.

Democratic Progressive Party legislator Liu Shyh-fang said she found from Ministry of Foreign Affairs documents that the average age of Taiwan’s 116 overseas office heads was 59.2.

Only two were younger than 49, 55 were in their fifties, 48 were 60 to 64 and eleven were 65 or older, she said.

Liu said that Lee wanted to promote presidential diplomacy, but many overseas diplomats and ambassadors were older than President Tsai Ing-wen.

Lee responded that he became head of North American affairs at MOFA when he was 46 and deputy foreign minister when he was 49, with then-Foreign Minister Jason Hu being 50 years old.     [FULL  STORY]

FOCUS:The president said that as central government resources are limited, funds should be used on policies that will create results and not just look good on paper

Taipei Times
Date: May 29, 2016
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday promised to provide central government resources to

the “regional united governance” initiative at a “consensus camp” of leaders of the nation’s three central counties and Taichung.

Leaders and high-ranking officials from Taichung, and Changhua, Nantou and Miaoli counties met in Nantou along with the president.

In her address, Tsai said the camp meant a great deal to her, as the “model of regional governance” has been one of her main policies since 2014 and a crucial component of the new administration’s governance.

“The [central Taiwan] governance platform was a pledge made by the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] during the 2014 elections, and I was happy to see its establishment by Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) and Changhua County Commissioner Wei Ming-ku (魏明谷),” she said.     [FULL  STORY]

The China Poast
Date: May 29, 2016
By: CNA

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Premier Lin Chuan, right, speaks to the press Saturday, May 28, about Taiwan’s

recent participation in the World Health Assembly (WHA). Lin lauded Health Minister Lin Tzou-yien for leading the Taiwan delegation to what he called a successful mission to the WHA. Taiwan took part as “Chinese Taipei,” and the health minister did not mention “Taiwan” at all in his entire speech delivered at WHA. The premier said it is the government’s “long-term goal” to see changes to the name that Taiwan is able to use at the WHA.     [SOURCE]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/05/27
By: Milly Lin and Kuo Chung–han

Taipei, May 27 (CNA) A new high for power consumption in 2016 was set at 2:06 p.m. on Friday when Taiwan consumed 33,123.8 megawatts (MW) of electricity, according to state-run utility Taiwan Power Company (Taipower, 台電), as Taiwan was hit by sweltering temperatures.

The system had power reserves of only 1,275 MW, equal to a 3.85 percent reserve margin, and was close to the power rationing alert level of 900 MW, according to Taipower data.

The temperature in Chiayi City in southern Taiwan climbed to 37.2 degrees Celsius at 1:45 p.m. Friday, the highest in Taiwan so far this year.

It was also the highest for that weather station since records were first kept in 1968.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Source: United Daily News
Date: May 27, 2016

Coordinating private sector efforts in developing opportunities for Taiwan firms in emerging markets

throughout Southeast Asia and beyond is a top priority for the government, according to James C. F. Huang, head of the New Southbound Policy Office under the Presidential Office May 27.

“The New Southbound Policy has three prongs: new range, new direction and new support,” Huang said. “Taiwan must start eyeing markets in the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations member economies and beyond.”

Under new range, the New Southbound Policy extends to six South Asian countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. New direction encompasses inbound investment and tourism, as well as educational exchanges. And new support involves viewing Southeast and South Asia as more than just a base for manufacturing, but an extension of Taiwan’s domestic demand to support growth.

According to Huang, business opportunities related to infrastructure construction in ASEAN economies are estimated to reach US$1 trillion by 2020. Taiwan enterprises can look to tap robust demand, capitalizing on its strengths in power generation, sewage treatment, telecommunications and transport engineering, he said.     [FULL  STORY]

OUT WITH THE OLD:‘Today our votes ended the KMT’s black money politics and changed the definition of Taiwan’s local politics,’ DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-ling said

Taipei Times
Date: May 28, 2016
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

Amendments to the Local Government Act (地方制度法) requiring speakers and deputy speakers of

local councils to be elected by open ballots cleared the legislative floor yesterday.

Existing local government law stipulates that speakers and deputy speakers of the councils of special municipalities, cities and counties, and the chairpersons and vice chairpersons of township councils, “shall be elected or recalled by secret ballot by the councilors of the special municipality, county/city councilors, and township/city representatives.”

The amendments changed the wording of the act from “secret” to “registered” votes.

Before the amendments were voted on — following Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) objections to the the proposed amendments — Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers took turns to applaud the change and said the proposal would make local politics more transparent and hold politicians accountable to voters.     [FULL STORY]