Headline News
U.K. and EU support Taiwan’s WHA participation
“The government is working with likeminded countries to lobby the World Health Organization (WHO) at official level to issue an invitation to Taiwan to observe the World Health Assembly (WHA) in May,” responded Under-Secretary Jackie Doyle-Price of the U.K. Department of Health and Social Care to written inquiries from House of Commons member Martin Vickers. Also Mark Field, Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth office issued an identical response on April 10.
Meanwhile, an EU official said to the Central News Agency (CNA) that “the EU promotes practical solutions regarding Taiwan’s participation in international frameworks, wherever this is consistent with the EU’s ‘One China’ policy and the EU’s policy objectives.
Apart from the U.K. and the EU, the United States and Canada have both expressed their support for Taiwan’s participation in the 2019 WHA session from May 20 to 28 in Geneva.
Academia Sinica a major contributor to black hole image
Around 30 scientists from Taiwan’s top research institute Academia Sinica, together with 200 experts from 12 other research institutes in the world, made a significant contribution to capture the first image of a black hole by supporting in the operation of radio telescopes and the analysis of obtained data.
Academia Sinica was involved in the operation of the two telescopes in Hawaii and the one in Chile.
BERI: Taiwan 4th best place to invest
U.S. Business Environment Risk Intelligence (BERI) ranks Taiwan in its April 2019 report the 4th best investment destination worldwide.
Only Switzerland, Norway and Singapore were ranked ahead of Taiwan among the 50 countries surveyed in the report.
BERI based its investment risk assessment on operational risk, political risk and the foreign exchange/external accounts position risk. In terms of operation risk,Taiwan ranks the world’s fourth-safest and Asia’s safest destination. However, it ranks 18th in the world and 7th in Asia for political risk. In terms of foreign exchange/external accounts position (remittance and repatriation factor) risk, it ranks as the world’s safest destination.
Economy & Society
Google to expand operations
Google will double its office space office space in Taiwan by acquiring a new office complex at the Taipei Far Eastern Telecom Park, said Rick Osterloh, senior Vice-President of hardware at Google at a press conference in Taipei.
Taiwan has emerged as Google’s largest research and development center in Asia and plays a core role in Google’s quest to dominate the artificial intelligence sector in the world and made great contributions to Google’s Pixel series mobile phone sales, said Osterloh.
Facebook opens new headquarters
Facebook opened a new headquarters in Nan Shan Plaza in Taipei. Facebook Asia-Pacific president Dan Neary said that Taiwan is a very important market and the relocation of the company’s headquarters reflects the confidence in the future of the local market while Facebook will continue to invest in Taiwan and to help developing the many opportunities available in Taiwan to connect to the rest of the world.
“We hope Facebook will pour more resources into Taiwan and help create more opportunities for the local industry as part of the country’s efforts to transform its digital economy,” said Vice Premier Chen Chi-mai, adding that the Ministry of Economic Affairs will team up with Facebook to promote digital marketing, artificial intelligence and AR/VR.
Taiwan selected ‘Eco Destination of the year’
Taiwan was selected as the 2019 Eco Destination by Asia Dive Expo (ADEX) held this year in Singapore.
According to ADEX, the award was given to Taiwan for its longtime dedication to the preservation of eco systems and environmental protection.
