Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/03/18
By: Chen Chia-lun and Lilian Wu

Taipei, March 18 (CNA) Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said on Friday the head of the foundation is still planning to visit mainland China despite misgivings about cross-strait exchanges after Beijing announced its reestablishment of diplomatic ties with The Gambia a day earlier.

SEF Chairman Lin Join-sane (林中森) is still scheduled to make a 10-day visit to the mainland in early April, the semi-official body set up to handle exchanges in the absence of official ties said.

Lin’s itinerary was put forward to its counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), three days ago. It has yet to receive a response from the association, but there should be no changes, the SEF said.

Lin is scheduled to travel to the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen and take part in the activities involving Taiwanese businessmen there, while the ARATS is expected to send officials to accompany Lin based on past practice, according to the SEF.

Whether there will be changes on the part of the mainland remains to be seen, but Lin’s visit is still being planned, it added.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: March 18, 2016

A Taiwan artificial intelligence startup founder and CEO was added March 16 to the ranks of

Geneva-based World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders on the strength of his business acumen and high-tech accomplishments.

Yu Chih-han of Taipei City-headquartered Appier Inc., a technology company making big inroads in the international AI market since its launch in 2010, earned WEF praise for significant headway in the development of self-driving cars and robotics.

Born 1979 in Taichung City, the Harvard University-trained computer scientist caught the imagination of industry experts and competitors by using AI to track users’ cross-screen behavior on multiple devices.

The technology is a boon for online advertising and has extensive business intelligence applications. Silicon Valley-based Sequoia Capital recognized the potential of Yu’s work and invested US$6 million in Appier during a Series A round of funding in 2014. This was the first time a Taiwan startup had secured backing from the renowned venture capital firm.

Yu said he is grateful for the WEF recognition and believes the honor will help strengthen the development of AI in Taiwan. “We look forward to expanding the technology’s reach across business, healthcare and Internet via the integration of academic knowledge and industrial practice.”     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-03-17
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

President Ma Ying-jeou said on Thursday during a state visit that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is planning a trip for foreign media to visit Taiping Island in the South China Sea.

The island, administered by Taiwan, is also claimed by China, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Ma made the statement while he was chatting with the media in the hotel he stayed.

Foreign Minister David Lin, who has been accompanying Ma on the state visit to allies Belize and Guatemala in Central America, said that after Ma set foot in Taiping Island in January, the MOFA has been planning the follow-up, but has yet to decide on a timeline.

Media reports have said that the government had planned to take domestic and foreign media on a trip to visit the still-under-military-control Taiping Island of Spratly Islands in the South China Sea on March 23 or March 24, weather permitting, to witness that the island is an “island,” not a “rock,” and suitable for human inhabitance and economic activities.

Lin said he hoped to arrange for media to visit Taiping Island at an appropriate time, which is still at the planning stage, and therefore could not make a comment at this moment.     [SOURCE]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/03/17
By: Tang Pei-chun and S.C. Chang

Taipei, March 17 (CNA) Taiwan and the Philippines have agreed to set up a hotline on fishing disputes and cooperate in cracking down on illegal fishing in their overlapping exclusive economic zones, officials said late Thursday.

The Republic of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) officials said those were consensuses reached at the second Technical Working Group meeting on fishery cooperation held in Taipei March 15.

The meeting was jointly chaired by Taiwan’s representative to the Philippines, Lin Sung-huan, and the Philippines’ representative to Taiwan, Antonio Basilio.

The hotline is aimed at informing each other at the earliest possible time of a fishing accident in the overlapping waters, to prevent misjudgments that might affect fishermen’s rights and relations between the two countries, according to a MOFA statement.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: March 17, 2016

More people consider themselves Taiwanese than any time in the past two decades,

according to a survey released March 14 by Taipei City-based United Daily News.

A total of 73 percent of respondents identify themselves as Taiwanese, up from 44 percent in 1996—the year the island’s voters participated in the first direct ROC presidential election.

Only 11 percent said they were Chinese, 10 percent Taiwanese and Chinese, 1 percent no difference between the two and the remainder declining to comment. The 20 to 29 age group has the highest connection to the island, with 85 percent seeing themselves as Taiwanese.

The overall trend is in line with an ROC Mainland Affairs Council-commissioned annual poll conducted nationwide since 1992 by National Chengchi University’s Election Study Center in Taipei.

In 2015, a total of 59 percent of respondents identified themselves as Taiwanese, up from 24.1 percent in 1996. Only 3.3 percent said they were Chinese and 33.7 percent Taiwanese and Chinese.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-03-16
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Premier-designate Lin Chuan was reported as saying in the upcoming issue of Business Today weekly to be published on Thursday that imposition of capital gains tax is impossible in the foreseeable future in the absence of dramatic changes.

Business Today issued a news release on Wednesday that reveals part of an exclusive interview the magazine had with Lin a few days ago, in which he was asked the question regarding the capital gains tax.

Lin was also reportedly asked if he would raise sales tax and estate and gift tax in the future to finance for the elderly long-term care policy.

Lin was cited as saying that the purposes of the elderly long-term care policy also include employment and innovation.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/03/16
By: Kuo Chung-han

Taipei, March 16 (CNA) Denmark is the world’s happiest place and Taiwan is the 35th, according to the “World Happiness Report 2016” released in Rome on Wednesday.

The top 10 countries in the report were Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, and Sweden, in that order.

Madagascar, Tanzania, Liberia, Guinea, Rwanda, Benin, Afghanistan, Togo, Syria and Burundi were listed at the bottom of the rankings, with Burundi at the very bottom.

The report, prepared by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) for the United Nations and the Earth Institute at Columbia University, collected answers from roughly 3,000 respondents in each of the 157 countries and economies.

In the Asian region, Singapore was listed at 22nd, Thailand 33rd and Saudi Arabia 34th.     [FULL  STORY]

‘TAKE A SIDE’:Legislator Chuang Jui-hsiung called commission Chairman Liu I-chou ‘two-faced,’ accusing him of refusing to take a stance, despite his beliefs

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 17, 2016
By: Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter

Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairman Liu I-chou (劉義周) yesterday

said he would recommend the commission overturn fines against the Appendectomy Project after facing questions from lawmakers.

“I have always believed that Article 86 of the Civil Servants Election And Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) [forbidding publicizing ongoing recall campaigns] was out of step with the times and should not be enforced,” he said in response to questions from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lai Rui-lung (賴瑞隆) at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee.

A final decision on the matter would depend on the consensus of the commission as a whole, Liu said.

“While I do not believe fines should be levied in this case, I still do not know what recommendations other commission members will make,” he said.     [FULL  STORY]