En vertu d`un accord de partage de codes, les vols

France
seeking
investment from Taiwan
more
Taipei, Sept. 22 (CNA) France has
put a high priority on attracting more foreign investment from
Asia, and Taiwan is one of the main target partners, France’s
new representative to Taiwan said at an investment seminar
Tuesday.
The seminar on investing in France was part of the French
government’s initiative to promote foreign investment from 50
target countries and territories, said Benoit Guidee, director
of the French Office in Taipei.
These include 10 from the Asia-Pacific region, said the
office, which represents France’s interests in Taiwan in the
absence of bilateral diplomatic ties.
France has taken several steps to improve its business and
investment environment, including streamlining administrative
procedures, setting up e-government services and pushing for
tax reforms aimed at attracting more investors, said Guidee,
who took up his post earlier this month.
Speaking of the relations between Taiwan and France, he said
France is one of Taiwan’s major cooperation partners in
culture, higher education and scientific research. Both sides
are also working to advance cooperation in the area of
innovation, he added.
There are currently about 50 Taiwanese companies with
investments in France, mostly in luxury goods and hotels and
the electronics and logistics fields, he said.
The number is quite low compared with South Korea and Japan’s
presence in France, he said, adding that there is still plenty
of untapped potential for investment ties between Taiwan and
France.
At Tuesday’s event, Pierre Moussy, economic counselor of the
French Office in Taipei, also gave a briefing on France’s
investment environment.
Advantages of investing in France include its geographic
location at the heart of the world’s largest market, the
European Union, a productive workforce and an innovative
economy, he said.
France has also engaged in wide-ranging reforms to strengthen
its competitiveness, including cuts in taxes for businesses by
2017 and measures to support innovation and investment.
Representatives of Taiwanese companies that have invested in
France were also invited to the seminar to share their
experiences with potential Taiwanese investors.
(By Elaine Hou)
ENDITEM/ls
U.S.
against
unilateral
changes
to
status quo
cross-strait
Washington, Sept. 21 (CNA) The
fundamental interest of the United States is in peaceful and
stable cross-Taiwan Strait relations, and Washington is
against either side changing the status quo unilaterally, U.S.
National Security Advisor Susan Rice said Monday.
“The longstanding position of the United States is unchanged,”
she said. “We remain committed to our ‘one China’ policy based
on the three Joint Communiques and the Taiwan Relations Act.”
“Our fundamental interest is in peaceful and stable crossStrait relations, and we oppose unilateral changes to the
status quo by either side,” she added.
Rice touched upon the issue while giving a speech on “the
U.S.-China Relationship” at George Washington University.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is scheduled to arrive in
Seattle on Tuesday for his first state visit to the United
States, during which the issue of Taiwan is expected to come
up.
Xi will have a working dinner at the White House with U.S.
President Barack Obama on Sept. 24 and will be greeted with a
21-gun salute and hold a joint news conference with Obama a
day later.
According to Rice, the two leaders will exchange views on
human rights, cyber security and the South China Sea.
(By Rita Cheng and Y.F. Low)
ENDITEM/ls
Taiwan given assurances over
China’s new travel card:
premier
Taipei, Sept. 22 (CNA) China has
given a “positive response” to Taiwan’s concerns over a new
electronic card issued to Taiwanese visitors, Premier Mao Chikuo (毛治國) said Tuesday.
At the request of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, the
Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) under China’s State Council
clarified late Monday that all information stored in the card
would be consistent with that on the passport-style document
that it replaces, Mao told reporters.
The TAO has also said that the new card, which looks like a
credit card with the bearer’s picture, will only be used for
travel purposes, Mao said.
The premier reiterated Taiwan’s hope that no new measures
related to exchanges across the Taiwan Strait should be
implemented until after a consensus is reached through full
consultations between the two sides.
On Monday, Mao expressed Taiwan’s “extreme dissatisfaction”
over the lack of discussions prior to China’s announcement
that it would begin to issue the new card that day.
The Chinese side notified Taipei of the new electronic card
before a trial in July and its full implementation Monday
without prior consultations, said Lin Chu-chia (林祖嘉), deputy
chief of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), the Cabinet
agency responsible for relations with China.
There has been a lack of consultation despite Taiwan’s
persistent demand that there should be prior consultations
before any important policy concerning cross-Taiwan Strait
relations is announced, Lin said at the Legislative Yuan.
The new travel pass will replace the paper document that
Taiwanese citizens had used to enter mainland China until
Monday.
Taiwanese citizens are not able to use their Republic of China
(Taiwan) passports to travel to China because Beijing views
Taiwan as part of China and maintains that the two sides
should be united one day.
In the public notice issued on Sept. 15, the Chinese
government said Taiwan residents can apply to its public
security departments above the county level to exchange their
travel document for the new card.
Chinese authorities will stop issuing paper documents on Sept.
21, the notice said. Those who do not exchange their existing
paper document can continue to use them until they expire,
according to Lin.
To coincide with the introduction of the new card, China began
in July to allow Taiwanese visitors to enter its territory
without the need to first apply for an entry permit similar to
a visa.
The IC card system for Taiwanese travelers was implemented on
a trial basis July 1, less than a month after China announced
the change, and Taiwan was officially informed of the new
policy 20 minutes before it took effect, according to MAC
chief Hsia Li-yan (夏立言).
While the new measures make it easier for Taiwanese to travel
to the mainland, China’s adoption of the smart card was viewed
with suspicion among many in Taiwan, who questioned whether it
was designed to downgrade Taiwan’s status to that of Hong Kong
and Macau.
The card is similar to the “home visit permits” issued to
residents of Hong Kong and Macau, China’s two special
administrative regions which used to be British and Portuguese
colonies, critics said.
Some Taiwanese scholars have also expressed concerns over
possible information security breaches with the use of the
card.
Experts have said that the smart chip embedded in the card
would make it easy for Taiwanese tourists in China to be
subjected to police surveillance.
(By Tseng Ying-yu and Jay Chen)
Enditem/ls
Average monthly earnings in
first 7 months of 2015 up
3.53%
Taipei, Sept. 22 (CNA) The monthly
earnings of the average worker in Taiwan rose 3.53 percent in
the first seven months of this year from a year earlier, due
largely to an increase in year-end and performance bonuses,
according to government statistics released Tuesday.
In the seven-month period, the average employee earned
NT$51,454 (US$1,575) a month, the highest ever recorded for
the same period of the year in the country’s history, the
Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics
(DGBAS) said.
Monthly earnings consist of regular wages (including salary
and fixed monthly subsidies and bonuses) and irregular
earnings such as overtime pay and year-end and performance
bonuses, which Taiwanese employers tend to issue before the
Lunar New Year holiday.
After being adjusted for a 0.65 percent fall in Taiwan’s
consumer price index, average real earnings for the first
seven months of the year were NT$49,960 in 2011 Taiwan dollar
terms, up 4.2 percent from a year earlier and the highest ever
for the period.
The DGBAS said the average regular wage was NT$38,591 for the
January to July period, also a record high and up 1.43 percent
from a year earlier.
During the same period, average irregular earnings rose 10.37
percent from a year ago to NT$12,863 due to an increase in
bonus payments, according to the DGBAS.
It said the average real regular wage was NT$37,471, the
highest in eight years and up 2.09 from a year earlier.
In July alone, average monthly earnings stood at NT$46,922, up
5.25 percent from a month earlier and 2.26 percent from a year
earlier, the DGBAS data showed.
Average regular wages for the month rose 0.05 percent from a
month earlier and also grew 0.84 percent from a year earlier
to NT$38,851, the data showed.
Meanwhile, the average number of monthly working hours in the
first seven months stood at 172.7 hours, down 1.7 hours from a
year earlier, the DGBAS said.
The figure for July alone was 186.6 hours, up 9.3 hours from a
month earlier but down 1.3 hours from a year earlier, the
government agency said.
(By Chen Cheng-wei and Y.F. Low)
ENDITEM/ls
Taiwan
promotes
greenhouse
gas reduction act at AECEN
event: EPA
Taipei, Sept. 21 (CNA) Taiwan’s
Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) on Monday
promoted the country’s greenhouse gas reduction efforts at an
environmental compliance conference in Thailand, the EPA said
in a statement.
The Greenhouse Gases Reduction and Management Act went into
effect in Taiwan in July, signaling that the country is
heading toward a low-carbon society, the statement cited Hsiao
Ching-lang (蕭清郎), head of the EPA’s Bureau of Environmental
Inspection, as saying at the opening of the conference.
The act sets a long-term goal for carbon emissions to be
reduced to less than half the level of 2005, by 2050.
Through the conference, Hsiao said, he hopes different
countries will be able to share their experiences in
environmental compliance and enforcement and work together to
protect the earth.
Cynthia Giles, Assistant Administrator for the Office of
Enforcement and Compliance Assurance under the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, meanwhile, predicted that
environmental enforcement authorities will increasingly rely
on technology to regulate pollution and monitor the quality of
the environment, according to the statement.
Organized by the Asian Environmental Compliance and
Enforcement Network, the “Next Generation Compliance in Asia”
is taking place Sept. 21-23 in Bangkok.
The conference brings together government agencies, academics
and private sector representatives from 16 countries. It will
address such topics as national enforcement systems in Asia,
improving the effectiveness of compliance programs, and
advanced technologies for detecting violations.
AECEN was established in 2005 by environmental agencies from
13 Asian countries, with the aim of promoting better
compliance of environmental protection laws.
(By Zoe Wei and Christie Chen)
ENDITEM/cs
Free influenza vaccines to
become available Oct. 1: CDC
Taipei, Sept. 21 (CNA) Governmentfunded flu vaccines will be available from Oct.1 and eligible
recipients should get their shots as soon as possible at the
nation’s 3,000 medical facilities where the free vaccines are
offered, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Monday.
CDC Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said that
this year, the government purchased more than 3.16 million
doses of influenza vaccine, including 2.93 million for adults
and 233,000 for children, about 68,000 doses more than last
year.
These doses of free flu vaccine are available for high-risk
groups, including people aged 65 and over; children between
the ages of six months and preschool years; nursing home
residents, patients with rare or acute diseases; health care
workers; those working in animal farming or animal disease
prevention and people aged between 60 and 64 with high-risk
chronic illnesses.
This year, pregnant women and people aged 50 and above with
high-risk chronic illnesses will also become eligible to
receive the free immunization, according to Chuang.
The vaccines offered by the government this year are the types
recommended by the World Health Organization, which are
trivalent vaccines protecting against three influenza viruses
— influenza A (H3N2) virus, influenza A (H1N1) virus, and
influenza B virus of the Yamagata lineage, according to
Chuang.
Drifted H3N2 viruses were first detected in March 2014 and
subsequently caused widespread outbreaks, Chuang said.
The winter’s dominant virus strain–a mutated variant of
H3N2–has claimed 400 lives in Hong Kong, he added.
(By Lung Pei-ning and Evelyn Kao)
Enditem/cs
MND bans military servicemen
from buying own equipment
Taipei, Sept. 21 (CNA) The Ministry
of National Defense (MND) defended on Monday the way it equips
military personnel after being accused of not caring about
providing gear that performs up to expectations.
The ministry said the equipment it provides is based on actual
needs and follows set procurement procedures, and military
officers and servicemen are required to wear uniformed outfits
for combat identification and to maintain military discipline.
Military officers and servicemen are also prohibited from
buying their own equipment, it said.
The MND was responding to media reports that Hsu Cheng-yi (許誠
宜), a squadron head of the Marine amphibious reconnaissance
and patrol unit, bought his own gear, including an anti-bullet
helmet and vest, for a recent military exercise.
Hsu wrote on his Facebook page that the military cares only
about uniformed dress and ignores whether the equipment it
provides meets expectations, forcing him to buy his own
equipment.
The MND responded that the weapons and gear now allocated to
military servicemen have passed strategic assessments and meet
all combat, protection and security requirements.
Equipment purchased on the market has not passed security
verification for military equipment, and its effectiveness in
protecting people has yet to be assessed, the ministry said,
explaining why it prohibits military officers and servicemen
from buying equipment on their own.
The MND said it values the views and suggestions of military
officers and personnel, but their ideas have to first be
assessed by specific units before procurement procedures can
be changed.
Reports have said that Hsu paid NT$130,000 (US$3,996) for the
equipment he used in the drill, including a NT$45,000 Ops-Core
Maritime helmet.
Reports cited a general as saying that the anti-bullet helmet
was bought from a military product store or a shop selling
video survival game gear in Taiwan and was not purchased from
the United States.
Another military officer said Hsu took part in the Han Kuang
series of military exercises dressed up as a “survival game”
character simply to show off, behavior that the military did
not encourage.
But one officer sympathized with Hsu, saying that the personal
gear sold in stores specializing in “survival game” items was
used by the U.S. military and better than the gear supplied by
Taiwan’s military.
(By Lu Hsin-hui and Lilian Wu)
Enditem/ls
Public
pessimistic
economic prospects
Taipei,
Sept.
21
about
(CNA)
Public
confidence in Taiwan’s economic prospects declined for the
sixth consecutive month in September, falling to its lowest
point since the Greek debt crisis erupted in July 2012,
according to a Cathay Financial Holding Co. (國泰金控) survey.
The survey found that people feeling pessimistic about
Taiwan’s current economic situation outnumbered optimists by
67.2 percentage points, and those feeling pessimistic about
the country’s economic outlook over the next six months
outnumbered optimists by 44.6 percentage points.
In terms of the stock market, respondents were generally
bearish about the market’s performance in the coming months.
Nearly 30 percent of respondents expected the Taiwan stock
exchange’s benchmark index to fall below the 7,000-point mark
by the end of this year, and 44.4 percent said the index would
end up between 7,000 and 8,000 points by that time.
Only 6.2 percent said they thought the market would end the
year above the 8,500-point mark, according to the survey.
Shares in Taiwan closed down 155.10 points, or 1.83 percent,
at 8,307.04 on Monday.
Respondents were more optimistic about overseas markets, with
42.5 percent saying they were bullish on the U.S. stock market
and 31 percent saying they were optimistic about emerging
markets, which suffered steep losses in recent sessions.
The decline in overall confidence in the country’s economy was
hurt by the two-point fall in the government’s index of
economic monitoring indicators to 14 in July, the lowest level
in over three years, Cathay Financial said.
Public sentiment was also affected by major institutions’
downward revisions of forecasts for domestic economic growth
and the job market, which have dampened the public’s
willingness to consume and could affect short-term domestic
consumption growth, according to Cathay Financial.
Cathay Financial conducted the survey from Sept. 1 to 7,
collecting 22,659 valid questionnaires from clients of Cathay
Life Insurance and Cathay United Bank, two of its
subsidiaries.
(By Tien Yu-pin and Evelyn Kao)
Enditem/ls
Fair weather expected in
central, southern Taiwan for
Mid-Autumn
Taipei, Sept. 21 (CNA) Weather
conditions in central and southern Taiwan could be fair for
the Sept. 27 Mid-Autumn Festival, with generally clear skies
that should be ideal for moon-gazing, the Central Weather
Bureau said Monday.
However, people in northern and eastern parts of the country
might have poorer luck, as showers are expected during the
three-day holiday that starts Sept. 26, it said.
The rain could start to ease up in those areas from Sept. 28,
the bureau said.
In addition, the bureau said, the moon will not reach its
fullest until the day following the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The moon will be closest to Earth at 9:46 a.m. on Sept. 28, it
said.
(By Lee Hsin-Yin)
ENDITEM/J
Kinmen
turning
fortified
islet
into
destination
tourism
Taipei, Sept. 21 (CNA) Kinmen
County’s culture bureau has started hosting a series of
activities with the aim of helping to attract more tourists to
Dadan islet, a former frontline fortified outpost under
Kinmen’s administration, once it opens for tourism, slated for
2017.
The activities include inviting artists to the islet to create
works featuring the local landscape and people. A total of 50
painters, photographers and writers have visited the islet
since August and their works will be collated and published by
the bureau in the form of guidebooks.
The works will be also displayed in exhibitions organized by
the bureau, it said.
The islet, 4.4 kilometers from Xiamen in mainland China’s
Fujian Province and 12 kilometers from Kinmen Island, was
turned over by the Ministry of National Defense to the Kinmen
county government in June after the Executive Yuan gave a
green light for the move in 2013.
As a focal point of cross-Taiwan Strait tension during the
Cold War era, the 0.97 square-kilometer islet’s unique natural
environment has been well preserved, along with its historical
and military relics, making it a destination worthy of
exploration.
(By H.M. Huang and Flor Wang)
ENDITEM/J