Austrian Airlines to pool flight operations within Tyrolean,Strong

Taiwan should be part of new
free trade area in Northeast
Asia: Ma
Taipei, May 16 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou said Wednesday
that Taiwan should not be absent from a potential new free
trade bloc in Northeast Asia, noting that it could “play an
important and constructive role” in the region.
The president was referring to an agreement by Japan, China
and South Korea to start official negotiations on a trilateral
free trade pact within this year, which he said “has put
pressure to Taiwan.”
Speaking at a meeting with Sumio Tarui, Japan’s top
representative to Taiwan, at the Presidential Office, Ma said
relations between Taiwan and Japan are now the best they have
been over the past four decades and that bilateral trade
continues to thrive.
Under such circumstances, Ma expressed the hope that Japan
will seriously and positively consider the signing of a free
trade agreement with Taiwan.
Ma cited an aviation golden triangle in Northeast Asia as an
example of such cooperation, noting that when Tokyo (Haneda
International Airport), Seoul (Gimpo International Airport)
and Shanghai (Hongqiao Airport) began negotiating the
triangle, Taipei was not included.
But he believed Taiwan should have the chance to be part of
the arrangement and made it part of his presidential campaign
in 2007.
“After four years of effort, we now have direct flights with
Haneda, Hongqiao and Gimpo airports,” Ma said.
He also expressed the hope of joining the Trans-Pacific
Partnership trade agreement within eight years, but noted that
“the necessary conditions do not exist yet and we have to work
to create them.”
The conditions he referred to include completing follow-up
negotiations under the cross-Taiwan Strait Economic
Cooperation Framework Agreement that was signed in 2010,
expediting talks under the Trade and Investment Framework
Agreement with the United States, and making progress on free
trade talks with Japan and South Korea.
“If such conditions can be achieved, then the forces opposing
our application to join the trade bloc will be greatly
reduced,” Ma said.
The president said such a development would be positive for
the whole region, noting that Taiwan’s bilateral trade with
China, Japan and South Korea totaled US$160 billion, US$70
billion and US$10 billion, respectively, last year.
It would provide a major boost to Taiwan’s economy and also
help secure regional prosperity and security, he said.
(By Lee Shu-hua and Lilian Wu)
Taiwanese diva performs in
Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur, May 6 (CNA) Taiwanese singer A-mei sang in front
of an audience of 18,000 fans in Malaysia on Saturday as part
of her 2012 AMeiZing World Tour.
A-mei sung many of her hits during the three-and-a-half-hour
concert in the Malaysian capital.
She also sang several songs, including “Black Eats Black,” as
her alter ego, Amit, which is her Puyuma tribal name.
Enthusiastic screams from the fans made A-mei comment that
“Malaysian fans are truly the world’s most passionate.”
The head of A-mei’s Malaysian fan club also sent her a red
Angry Bird stuffed toy as a gift.
“Is it because red symbolizes Amit?” A-mei asked when she
received the gift.
The next leg of the diva’s tour to celebrate her 15th
anniversary in the entertainment industry will be in China, in
the Jiangsu Province city of Changzhou May 19.
(By Kuay Chau-churh and C.J. Lin)
Finnair ouvre une ligne vers
Chongqing
Helsinki, 9 Mai 2012 — Aujourd’hui, Finnair lance un vol direct vers Chongqing,
l’une des villes les plus grandes et ayant la plus rapide expansion de Chine.
Cette nouvelle ligne constitue une prochaine étape logique dans la stratégie de
la compagnie de transport consistant à proposer les liaisons les plus courtes
entre l’Asie et l’Europe via Helsinki. Finnair est la première compagnie à ouvrir
une ligne directe entre l’Europe et Chongqing
Situated on the edge of the Tibetan plateau, greater Chongqing
is one of China’s four province-level municipalities, and the
only one located in inland China. With a total population of
32 million residing in an area about the size of Austria,
Chongqing’s urban population is expected to double over the
next five years.
“China is a key part of our Asia-Europe strategy,” says CEO
Mika Vehviläinen. “Western China is an important growth area,
and the new route will strengthen our position in the growing
Asian markets. I want to thank the Chongqing authorities and
the local airport for the excellent cooperation and support
for opening this new route. We believe Chongqing has the
potential of developing into a hub for travel between Western
China and Europe, both for business and leisure travellers.”
Chinese companies and many Western companies, especially in
the electronics, automotive and chemical industries, are
currently expanding their operations in Chongqing, and
business travel and cargo prospects are promising. Chongqing
Airport also has already opened 140 routes to more than 80
cities in China and Asia, and the airport is undergoing
expansion. When the expansion is complete in 2015, the airport
will be capable of receiving 45 million passengers per year.
Besides booming business activity, Chongqing offers much to
see for tourists interested in China’s history and nature.
Visitors can enjoy historical buildings, temples, hot springs
and natural beauty, as well as the Dazu Rock Carvings, a
UNESCO World Heritage Site. Chongqing also provides convenient
access to river cruises on the Jialing and Yangtze rivers, and
the city is well connected to Lhasa, Xian and Kunming.
Finnair is flying Airbus A330 and A340 aircraft on the route,
which takes eight and a half hours. In addition to four
flights per week to Chongqing, in China Finnair flies daily to
Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong from Helsinki, the most
geographically logical transfer point for connecting with more
than 50 destinations in Europe. This summer Finnair will
operate 81 flights per week to 11 destinations in Asia.
Please
visit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pkr9J2D5oo&feature=plcp
discover Chongqing.
on
to
Taiwan
au
30e
Brussels
International Fantastic Film
Festival
Joe Chien, directeur du film “Zombie 108” aux côtés de S.E. Mr. David Lin,
Représentant de la République de Chine à Taiwan.
Pour la troisième année consécutive Taiwan était présente au
Festival du Film Fantastique de Bruxelles. Pour marquer la
présence à Bruxelles de M. Joe Chien, directeur du film
“Zombie 108”
le
Taipei Representative Office auprès de
l’Union Européenne et de Belgique avait invité quelques amis
de la République de Chine à la projection en première mondiale
du film du réalisateur Taiwanais.
Mr Freddy Bozzo, Vice-President BIFFF, Mr. David Lin, Representative
Taiwan, Mr. Joe Chien Jen-hao, Director Zombie 108, Ms. Wu Pei-ling,
Fiancee de Mr. Chien
HTC remains world’s
smartphone vendor
No.
5
Taipei, May 2 (CNA) Taiwan’s HTC Corp. remains the world’s No.
5 smartphone maker despite market share erosion from Samsung
Electronics Co. and Apple Inc., according to the results of a
survey released Wednesday.
In the first quarter of 2012, worldwide sales of smartphones
soared 42.5 percent from a year ago to 144.9 million units,
compared with 101.7 million units shipped in the same period
of last year, said U.S.-based research firm International Data
Corp. (IDC).
HTC’s shipments plunged 23.3 percent annually to 6.9 million
units in the January-March period, with the Taiwanese firm
ranking fifth with a 4.8 percent share of the global market,
IDC said.
The HTC figures were far below the 9 million units and the 8.9
percent market share it recorded in the first quarter of 2011.
“HTC’s struggles in the U.S. market once again negatively
affected its overall performance,” the report said.
“However, its relatively strong performance in the AsiaPacific region still allowed the company to maintain its
position among the top five smartphone vendors,” it added.
Meanwhile,
Samsung
overtook
Apple
for
the
smartphone
leadership position with record single-quarter shipments of
42.2 million units, or 29.1 percent of the market, while Apple
shipped 35.1 million units to capture a 24.2 percent market
share.
Nokia ranked third with an 8.2 percent market share, shipping
11.9 million smartphones during the period, a drop of 50.8
percent from the 24.2 million units in the first quarter of
last year, IDC said.
Research In Motion, which ranked fourth with a 6.7 percent
share, saw its shipments tumble by 29.7 percent annually from
13.8 million units to 9.7 million, as like Nokia, the
BlackBerry maker is facing a company transition, said the
research firm.
(By Jeffrey Wu)
Taiwanese diva performs for
first time in London
April 30, London (CNA) Taiwanese singer A-mei performed her
first concert at London Monday, fulfilling one of her longtime wishes.
A-mei said she had always wanted to sing in London, but had
never had the opportunity.
She sang many of her most popular songs in the concert at the
O2 Arena, such as “Holding Hands,” “Listen to the Sea” and “My
Dearest.”
The singer shared with fans her experience of being an artist
for 15 years and how during low periods she vowed to persevere
and use her natural gift of singing.
Over 10,000 fans attended the concert, some of whom cheered
the slogan “Ameizing,” while others screamed “A-Mei, I love
you!”
One British fan said he first heard A-mei’s voice at the
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and had been a faithful
fan ever since, having flown to Taiwan twice just to attend
her concerts.
A-mei’s friendly greeting of “Hello London” helped alleviate
homesickness, said Taiwanese fan Joanne, who lives in London.
(By Jennifer Huang and C.J. Lin)
Historic sailing boat coming
home to Taiwan
San Francisco, April 30 (CNA) The century-old wooden vessel
Free China was loaded onto a container ship owned by Yang Ming
Marine Transport Corp. in San Francisco Monday and is
scheduled to arrive in Taiwan May 16, according to the Taipei
Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco, which is
helping to arrange the delivery.
Former crew members of the ship, who now live in the United
States, were on hand at the port to see their ship being
loaded, the office said.
The vessel, which was built around 1890, made a historic
trans-Pacific journey from Taiwan to the U.S. 57 years ago,
according to the office.
It was the first boat to make such an epic voyage by the power
of wind and manpower in Chinese maritime history, and the last
of its kind in existence, the office said.
The boat, 23 meters long and 5 meters wide, left Keelung Port
in northern Taiwan in April 1955 with a crew of six, including
Calvin E. Mehlert, then-U.S. vice consul to Taiwan. It arrived
in San Francisco in August that same year.
The boat was donated to an American museum after the journey,
but later ended up in a private shipyard where it was found
abandoned in 2009.
Since then, the Taiwanese government has sent a team to assess
the boat’s value as a cultural asset and has spent over NT$12
million (US$409,497) to repair and bring the vessel back,
according to Stanley S.L. Wang, director of the Administration
of Cultural Heritage under the Council for Cultural Affairs.
The boat will be put on display at the National Museum of
Marine Science and Technology in Keelung to highlight the
country’s maritime history, the office added.
(By Oscar Wu and Maia Huang)
Taiwan neither ‘worst place
to be female’ nor best
Washington, April 30 (CNA) Compared with their counterparts in
developed North American and European countries, women in
Taiwan still suffer from a certain degree of gender
discrimination in many fields, including education, according
to a recently published U.S. study on “the worst place to be a
woman.”
Published in the April 24 edition of Foreign Policy magazine,
the study, authored by Valerie M. Hudson of Texas A&M
University, features the current status of women worldwide in
nine categories, including discrepancy in education, inequity
in family law and practice, and government participation by
women.
Other categories are child marriage for girls in terms of
practice and law, maternal mortality, women’s physical
security, polygyny, son preference and gender ratios, and
trafficking in women.
The survey indicates that Taiwanese women are not well-favored
in most of the categories.
On the scale of education discrepancy, which shows the degree
of difference between boys’ and girls’ enrollment in secondary
education, as well as whether there are any areas of study
that are restricted for girls, the largest gap is in Central
Africa, which has a more-than 20 percent degree of difference
between male and female secondary education levels.
Taiwan falls in the 11 to 15 percent bracket in terms of legal
or cultural educational restrictions for females, while
countries in North America and West Europe are listed in the
less-than 5 percent bracket, as there are no such restrictions
on girls there, according to the study.
The study also found that Taiwan, like China, has a family law
that “is somewhat inequitable, and those laws that are
equitable may not be enforced,” while North American and West
European countries have family laws that are “equitable
between men and women, and the law is respected.”
In terms of government participation, less than 15 percent of
parliamentary seats are held by women in Taiwan, while the
percentage reaches over 30 percent in North American and West
European countries.
Taiwan is also listed as a country in which women have low
levels of physical security. In the category of son preference
and gender ratios, Taiwan and China are both regarded as
having extremely abnormal gender ratios, with males heavily
favored, the study shows.
Foreign Policy, a magazine of global politics, economics and
ideas, is published by the Slate Group, a division of The
Washington Post.
(By Chou Yung-chieh and Elizabeth Hsu)
TransAsia Airway recruits
Japanese aviation veteran
Taipei, May 1 (CNA) TransAsia Airways, a mid-sized Taiwanbased international carrier, said Tuesday it has recruited a
Japanese aviation veteran in a bid to expand its business in
the North East Asia region.
Keizaburo Yokota, who has more than 30 years experience in the
aviation business, has been appointed by TransAsia Airways as
general manger of its North East Asia operations with
responsibility for marketing and business expansion.
Yokota will be based in Tokyo and will help make Japan a hub
for TransAsia’s expansion in North East Asia, the company
said.
He formerly worked for Japan Airlines in charge of its
international cooperation division and was also based in
Beijing for more than eight years as the Japanese carrier’s
representative to China, TransAsia said.
TransAsia Airways said it is upbeat about the potential for
growth in the Asian aviation market and that Yokota’s
experience is what it needs to penetrate the fast growing
market.
In a statement, Yokota said TransAsia Airways has laid a solid
business development foundation in Japan since it launched
charter flight services between there and Taiwan in 2008.
TransAsia Airways will use its years of charter flight
experience in Japan to launch regular flights later this year
and establish itself as a trustworthy carrier not just in the
Japan but throughout Asia, Yokota said.
In 2010, TransAsia Airways provided more than 1,000 charter
flights between Japan and Taiwan, operating with an average
load factor of 90 percent, according to the company’s
statistics.
With Taipei and Tokyo signing an open skies agreement in
November last year, TransAsia will commence scheduled flights
between Taipei and Osakda on June 28.
After that, it will open scheduled services to Sapporo,
Hakodate, Obihiro, Kushiro, Asahikawa, Okinawa and Fukuoka in
the second half of this year, the carrier said.
It also plans to launch flights to Thailand, Malaysia and
Indonesia in the second half of this year, it said.
The average load factor on TransAsia flights between Taiwan
and Singapore was 70 percent one year after the service was
launched, the airline said.
(By Chao Hsiao-hui and Frances Huang)
Temperatures soar to record
high in Taipei, Taitung
Taipei, May 1 (CNA) Taipei City and Taitung County on Tuesday
recorded temperatures of 35.9 and 38.1 degrees Celsius,
respectively, the highest this year, the Central Weather
Bureau said.
In Taipei, the high was recorded in the early afternoon after
warm southwestern winds blew in, with an urban heat island
effect contributing to the rising mercury, the bureau said.
The same weather pattern also caused Foehn winds — warm, dry
winds — that blew down the sheltered side of mountains into
the valleys in the eastern county of Taitung, sending
temperatures soaring to the fourth-highest level for that area
in May, the bureau said.
More heat waves can be expected as summer approaches but
temperatures might cool down islandwide Wednesday with the
arrival of the first plum rains of the year, the weather
bureau said.
The weather front is likely to bring heavy rainfall for the
rest of week in most regions, with temperatures ranging from
21-28 degrees across the island, it forecast.
(By Lee Hsin-Yin)