Headline News
Taiwan receives donor skin from Dutch skin bank
The Euro Skin Bank located in Beverwijk, the Netherlands, has donated ten boxes of skin to Taiwan to help burn victims. The donation follows an incident at a New Taipei water park on June 27 where colored cornstarch sprayed in the air caught fire.
Representative Tom Chou from the Taipei Representative Office met with CEOs of the Euro Skin Bank on July 2 to thank them in person. The donor skin will be able to help, and possibly save, approximately 50 youngsters.
In an open letter to Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf on July 7 Chou once more expressed his appreciation. He stated he was delighted to see that Taiwan’s past donations of relief and assistance to victims in other countries have been reciprocated by the international community to Taiwan in the aftermath of this incident.
Of the 495 people injured during the event, three have died and 235 are in critical condition. A total of 432 victims still remain hospitalized.
IMF praises Taiwan government’s role in innovation
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) praises the role the Taiwan government plays in stimulating technological innovation. Taiwan has been able to avoid the middle-income trap and to rise to high-income status because of this.
In a report released by the IMF, Taiwan has been marked as one of the nine countries that boosted its income between 1970 and 2010. However, of those nine, only Taiwan and South Korea were able to grow to a high-income status. By mapping out technology development strategies, the governments of Taiwan and South Korea were able to achieve these “economic miracles”.
The IMF report states that an increase in research and development spending, an improvement in education, a hike in the number of science and engineering graduates, as well as attempting to create local firms and clusters in the high-tech sector were vital to avoid the middle-income trap.
Technology
Taiwan inventors successful at Macau invention expo
Inventors from Taiwan were able to win 17 gold, 17 silver, 8 bronze and 3 special awards at the Macau International Innovation and Invention Expo. Taiwan has managed to achieve top-spot finishes for consecutive years now at the event.
One of the gold-winning submissions was a smart Chinese tea set developed by students from the Department of Digital Design of the Miaoli County-based Asia-Pacific Institute of Creativity. The set is comprised of a rotary tray, teapot and tea cups with a chip at the bottom. Using the set, cups are automatically filled with water by detecting weight changes.
Another highlight was a multifunctional umbrella designed by students of the Overseas Chinese University in Taichung City. The umbrella is equipped with a small LED lamp which switches on automatically in lowlight conditions. It also has a handle that emits sounds in case of an emergency.
Foxconn world’s second-largest smartphone assembler
Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology Group was ranked as the world’s second-largest smartphone assembler in the first quarter of 2015. Foxconn is known in Taiwan as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. and is a major Apple supplier.
Foxconn trailed only behind South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. in the top 10 ranking for global smartphone original design manufacturers (ODMs), according to a report by tech research firm IDC.
Aviation
China Airlines ranked world’s 6th largest cargo shipper
Taipei-based China Airlines was ranked as the sixth biggest international air cargo transporter in 2014. The ranking was made by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), a trade association of global airlines.
China Airlines transported 1.296 million tons of cargo in 2014, an annual increase of 8%, according to IATA statistics. The statistics also showed that the amount of Freight Ton-Kilometers (FTKs) increased with 9% from last year, going up to 5.266 billion ton-kilometers. This earned the company a 10th ranking worldwide.
