Minister Chiang told foreign investors that the government welcomes them and is prepared to help solve any difficulties. He said the Republic of China is dedicated to free trade.
Finance Minister K. T. Li, the vice chairman of CIECD, said the government will simplify tax procedures, including those involving rebates for duties on materials and components imported, subjected to processing and then exported.
Investors made many suggestions. They said they could buy more from local manufacturers if quality control were improved. They urged improved industrial training for young people and higher government pay to attract more efficient bureaucrats. Duty should be lowered for components and materials that are not produced locally, they said.
Most of those attending expressed hope that more such meetings will be held.
Overseas Chinese entrepreneurs also wanted further reduction of government red tape. They asked that banking services be improved to meet their needs.
Minister Chiang told more than 150 businessmen and industrialists that their cooperation is essential to economic development. He said the era of rugged individualism is over and that government and the private sector must cooperate for the good of nation and people.
From the private sector came suggestions for revision of the investment incentive law, simplification of government regulations and a review of tariffs to encourage industrial growth.
The Commission for Taxation Reform of the Executive Yuan held a hearing on revision of the investment law, which was enacted in 1960. Most of those attending urged that the changes provide incentive for the expansion of old enterprises as well as the establishment of new ones. Dr. Liu Ta-chung, chairman of the commission, said the new law will include accelerated depreciation as well as a tax holiday.
The Legislative Yuan revised the company law to permit the reinvestment of up to a third of an enterprise's capital in another company. The previous limit was one-fourth. Government corporations may use up to half of their capital for reinvestment. Another change prohibits companies from using short-term loans as financing for an increase in productive facilities.
Foreign investment for the year's first eight months totaled US$67.5 million, of which US$18.7 million came from overseas Chinese. This was an increase of 38.8 per cent. One hundred and twenty-four new investments were approved. The overseas Chinese share decreased by 11.25 per cent.
Since 1961, external investment has averaged US$41 million annually. Of the overseas Chinese applications, only 60 per cent reached fruition, compared with 96 percent for those of foreign investors.
Ten state-owned enterprises will spend US$1.04 billion during the 1970-73 period for the expansion of facilities. The money will 'be spent by Taiwan Power, Chinese Petroleum, Taiwan Fertilizer, Taiwan Alkali, Taiwan Sugar, Taiwan Aluminum, Taiwan Metal, Taiwan Machinery, Taiwan Shipbuilding and BES Engineering. Taipower will spend 52 per cent of the funds.
The Youth Guidance Committee of the Executive Yuan set aside US$125,000 for business loans to enterprising young people. The applicants must be between 25 and 30 and graduates of senior high or vocational schools. The low-interest loans will be accompanied by technical assistance.
Deputy Prime Minister Chiang told a meeting of 40 tax officials that tax evasion is a serious threat to the country. Corrupt officials must be weeded out, he said, and the people encouraged to report income honestly. If tax evaders get away with their crimes, confidence in government will be destroyed, he said.
For fiscal 1969, tax revenue exceeded US$800 million.
President Chiang Kai-shek presided over a meeting of the National Security Council that reviewed national reconstruction projects for 1971. The major categories of consideration were political reform, economic development, scientific advance and military preparedness.
General Chow Chi-jou, chairman of the National Reconstruction Planning Committee of NSC, reported on the proposed projects. Dr. Wu Ta-you cited implementation of the 12-year science development plan. Details of the science program will be found in the "Culture, science and education" department of this issue.
Vice President and Prime Minister Yen Chia-kan reported on administrative reforms at a Presidential Office meeting at which President Chiang presided. He said that the Executive Yuan is making rapid progress in the program, which seeks to augment national strength for the recovery of the mainland.
Science and education have first priority, he said. A system is being established for the evaluation of research and development. He attached special importance to the new Financial, Economic and Monetary Conference chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Chiang Ching-kuo.
Subsequently reporting to the Legislative Yuan in his capacity as the nation's chief administrative officer, C. K. Yen told of progress during the first half of 1969. The full text of that report will be found in the Documents section of this issue.
The Executive Yuan has adopted the IBM System 360 model 40 for data processing. This modernization step was taken in response to President Chiang's call for "innovation and action" increating a modern nation based on science. The first functions to be computerized are those of the government budget, accounting, statistics and personnel affairs.
Targeted economic growth for this year is 7 per cent. An actual gain of 10 per cent is in sight, according to the Council for International Economic Cooperation and Development. For the first six months of 1969, growth reached 10.2 per cent. Almost all individual goals were surpassed.
Foreign trade did especially well: volume of US$1,049 (58 per cent of target) made up of US$533 million worth of imports and US$516 million worth of exports. The unfavorable balance of US$17 million was the best record since the favorable balances of 1963 and 1964. Industrial production was 52.5 per cent of the year's goal. Agriculture was on target or better except for a few minor food grains.
Kaohsiung's Export Processing Zone is a sellout. With the approval of the 153rd plant, all space in standard factory buildings was sold out. Investment exceeds US$33 million. Of the 153 factories, 109 have begun operations, 32 are under construction and the remaining 11 will begin installing facilities soon.
Exports are expected to surpass US$182 million annually when production is under full steam. There will be jobs for more than 40,000. The investment breakdown is US$17.7 million from foreigners, US$6.5 million in the form of joint ventures, US$4.9 million from overseas Chinese and US$3.7 million from Taiwan investors.
KEPZ originally was designed for 120 factories.The enlargement and plans for a new zone are results of KEPZ's huge success. Exports exceeded US$25 million in the first six months of this year.. The foreign exchange gain was about US$9 million.
With the United States running a deficit in Taiwan trade for the first time in history, the American Embassy announced plans to push the sale of U.S. products. An industrial machinery exhibition will be held in Taipei a year hence as part of the program.
Oscar V. Armstrong, the Embassy charge d'affaires, told American businessmen that Taiwan exports to the United States increased 70 per cent in 1968 but that American sales to Taiwan were up only 3 per cent despite an overall import rise of 12 per cent. Declaring that American businessmen are being outsold in Asia, he called for improved selling techniques and efforts and more competitive products.
Closer ROC attention will be given the vast Indonesian market with the dispatch of a permanent commercial mission to Jakarta in November. The two countries do not have diplomatic relations but have been increasingly friendly since Indonesia's break with the Chinese Communists. A US$10 million line of credit has been established for the purchase of Taiwan products by Indonesians.
The Republic of China will take part in four international trade fairs during the first half of 1970: Tripoli, Johannesburg, Brussels and Lisbon.
A tragic blow was struck the Republic of China's administration with the death of Minister of Economic Affairs S. Y. Dao. The China News said:
"This country lost one of its ablest civil servants and most promising younger generation leaders with the death of S. Y. Dao.
"The recently appointed Minister of Economic Affairs was only 50 years old and one of the youngest men to hold a cabinet post in recent years.
"His accomplishments as Secretary-General of the Council for International Economic Cooperation and Development were exceptional. No administrator in free China knew more about U.S. and external investment in the Taiwan economy.
"Dao Sung-yang was German-educated and performed important services in developing China's economic and cultural ties with West Germany and Europe generally. He led a highly successful trade mission to Europe.
"His passing is made more tragic by the great courage of his long, painful trip to New York for further medical care. There he underwent a second operation. All this was finally too much for even his stout heart.
"S. Y. Dao will be sorely missed. He typified the best in the new breed of Chinese and injected an important content of scientific mindedness into the administration.
"His epitaph will be best written in the government's continued dedication to his beliefs and aspirations. There should be no retreat from increasing administration representation for the dynamic, imaginative younger generation.
"S. Y. Dao's monument is the considerable part of the Taiwan economic edifice for which he was personally responsible. He was a man, an administrator, a leader and an example that will not be soon forgotten."
Armed Forces Day was marked September 3, the 24th anniversary of victory over, Japan in the War of Resistance. President Chiang Kai-shek led the nation in tributes to the war dead at the Martyrs Shrine in suburban Yuanshan. Defense Minister Huang Chieh and Interior Minister Hsu Ching-chung presented citations to 170 servicemen and civilians for exemplary deeds in promoting civilian and military cooperation.
The message of congratulation from Vice Admiral John L. Chew, commander of the U.S. Taiwan Defense Command, said, "The efficient performance and cooperation of the Republic of China Armed Forces in matters of our Mutual Defense Treaty has resulted in a high degree of readiness."
In his message to the armed forces, General Kao Kuei-yuan, chief of the general staff, urged them to develop the "War of Resistance" spirit in recovering the mainland. "Our armed forces are better equipped and better trained than during the last World War," he said. "We should develop the tenacious spirit which prevailed during the War of Resistance in order to win our anti-Communist struggle."
General Kao broadcast to armed forces on the mainland, calling upon them to rise in response to President Chiang's summons for a united anti-Mao national salvation front.
The reality of continuing war in the Taiwan Straits was brought home with Defense Ministry announcement that Chinese Communist gunners had fired 909,487 rounds since start of the heavy shelling of Kinmen (Quemoy) and Matsu on August 23, 1958. The 898,058 shells that fell on Kinmen had killed 138 and wounded 480. Houses destroyed totaled 4,364, and 3,897 were damaged. Matsu, which is farther from the mainland, received 11,433 shells.
High efficiency of Chinese Air Force maintenance was indicated in ,the signing of a second contract for overhaul of 60 C47 transports and 36 F100D fighter bombers for the U.S. Air Force. The previous contract was for 66 C47s. CAF won the bid over competitors. Overhaul of a C47 by the CAF costs about US$9,000 compared with US$30,000 in the United States.
Agriculture did well for the first half of the year. Rice output was 1,236,000 metric tons, a gain of 2.3 per cent, and should show the targeted increase of 60,000 m/t for the year. These were other gains:
-Bananas, 465,000 tons, up 3 per cent.
-Sweet potatoes, 2,852,000 m/t, up 14.8 per cent.
-Pineapples, 102,000 m/t, up 9.7 per cent.
-Fish, 293,000 m/t, up 18.5 per cent.
-Fowl, 21,140,000 head, up 9 per cent.
-Eggs, 37 million dozen, up 9.2 per cent.
-Timber, 519,800 cubic meters, up 5.4 per cent.
Down moderately were hogs, sugar cane, mushrooms and miscellaneous crops.
Banana exports to Japan should have their best year ever - 9 million baskets worth US$65 million. (This estimate was before typhoon Elsie, which inflicted heavy losses on banana plantations). Y. T. Wong, director of the Board of Foreign Trade, said improvement in quality and shipping techniques will protect Taiwan against the competition of Latin American bananas in the Japanese market.
For next year, bananas will be graded and sold with a price differential. Two hundred packing sheds with mechanized facilities are being established to integrate and expedite grading, sterilization and packaging. Shipment will be in cartons, mostly on air-conditioned vessels.
In 1967, Taiwan sold a record 8,731,000 baskets of bananas to Japan and earned US$63 million.
The Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction took note of a decline in winter crop acreage and warned that this could adversely affect total agricultural production. Vegetables, tobacco and beans are the only crops to show increases. Not including green manure, acreage had dropped 8.9 per cent from 1964 to 1969. JCRR said the farm labor shortage and low prices were the principal reasons for the decline.
Although farm wages have risen 35.7 per cent in the last six years, labor is insufficient in busy seasons. Male workers, who ordinarily make US$1.50 to $1.75 a day, may receive US$2.50 or more during a harvest period. The tight timing of the first rice crop harvest, the planting of the second and the sowing of winter crops adds to the labor supply problem.
Dr. Chang Yen-tien, the vice minister of economic affairs, said farm mechanization must be encouraged to make up for the lack of human hands. He said the government will establish farm machine centers in rural areas to teach farmers the use and maintenance of machinery. Long-term loans also are planned. The high price of machinery has slowed farm mechanization. A power tiller costs about US$1,500 and a grain dryer US$275.
Computerization of agriculture is beginning this year. Joining JCRR for a year to direct computer activities is Floyd Pope from the United States. He will design projects and train technicians.
Frozen vegetables marketed under the sponsorship of JCRR have done well. Housewives have bought Chinese cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, asparagus and string beans. Consumers have asked for peapods, green peppers and spinach. Demand has exceeded supply during periods of vegetable shortage.
Approved by the Executive Yuan was a request of the Taiwan Sugar Corporation to cooperate with the Cargill Corporation of the United States in establishment of a joint feed plant at Kaohsiung. Capacity will be 125,000 tons annually. The goal is better feeds at a lower price to promote the production of hogs and other food animals.
Thirty-four specialists from Korea, Japan, Malaysia and China completed a 10-day agricultural marketing workshop. Twenty papers were presented and a four-day field trip undertaken. Participants were told of the rapid commercialization of Taiwan agriculture. Farmers derived 70 per cent of their income from the sale of products in 1967 versus 62 per cent a decade earlier. The story is much the same in the other developing Asian countries. Marketing, however, lags behind production. That was the reason behind the workshop.
JCRR sponsored a four-day seminar on rice disease control for more than 50 specialists. They were acquainted with the work completed or under way in other countries.
Fifty-five farm technicians from 20 African countries completed the 10th six-month seminar held in the last few years. Nearly 500 Africans have been trained and gone home to teach others. Classroom and field demonstration sessions are conducted in both English and French.
The Plant Research Institute of Ibadan, Nigeria, has expressed interest in exchanging technical personnel with the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center to be established in Taiwan.
Taiwan has the world's highest population density in terms of arable land. Family planning is an important government goal and results are encouraging.
The birth rate has been reduced from 34 per 1,000 in 1964 to 28.8 in 1968. The natural increase rate was cut from 28.4 per 1,000 in 1964 to 23.4 in 1968. The goal for 1975 is an increase rate of 20 per 1,000.
To provide better housing for the island's 14 million people, 88,000 units will be built in Taiwan province and 24,800 within the next four years. Funding will be from both government and private sources.
Government also hopes to control the distribution of population in northern Taiwan, the most densely populated area of the island. Steps will include new communities and industrial zones outside the Taipei area. Attempts will be made to limit the population of growing urban centers (other than Taipei) to 400,000.
At the end of 1968, the population of northern Taiwan was 3,652,700, of whom 37.2 per cent were under 12 years old. Those over 65 made up only 2.6 per cent of the total.
Construction of the US$2 million China Pavilion at Expo 70 in Osaka will be completed by the end of November. The interior will be finished at the end of February. Asia's first world fair will open March 15 near Japan's second largest city.
The government is considering plans to issue special tourist passports to Chinese nationals for visits to Expo 70. Travel would be in groups under the auspices of authorized travel agencies. Current regulations do not permit the travel of ROC citizens for purposes of sightseeing.
Taiwan's own tourism attracted nearly 210,000 visitors in the first seven months of 1969, a gain of 23.7 per cent. The leading nationalities were Japanese, 40.1 per cent; Americans, 26.4; overseas Chinese, 12.2; Filipinos, 3.6; and Australians, 2.7.
Entry and exit regulations have been simplified. The tourist visa will have a validity of six montl1s instead of three. It is good for a month and can be renewed for the same period. Passports of transit passengers no longer need be surrendered. Customs declarations and baggage inspection have been made less onerous. Entry permits of overseas Chinese from Hongkong and Macao will be good for six months instead of three and can be extended for an additional three months. Overseas Chinese holding passports of the Republic of China may make a Taiwan transit stop of up to 48 hours without entry or exit formalities.
The China Tourism Development Corporation opened for business. Capitalized at US$2.5 million, the joint enterprise of the Ministries of Communications and Finance and the Taiwan Provincial Government will make investments and loans in tourism projects, invite investment from overseas, give technical assistance and implement government tourism policies. Principal functions will be tl1e encouragement of investment in hotels and the development of scenic places and facilities.
Wuchi on the west coast near Taichung and Tamsui at the moutl1 of the river of the same name just north of Taipei had been competing for the privilege of becoming Taiwan's fourth international port. Both won-but the Executive Yuan decided that Wuchi would be given priority.
Construotion of Wuchi harbor will begin next year and of Tamsui around 1978.
Wuchi will cost about US$105 million and have eventual capacity of 6 million tons of cargo and 51 ships of up to 30,000 tons. Construotion will be in three or four stages over a period of 10 years. The first stage will be completed in 1973. The Executive Yuan hopes that the choice of Wuchi, despite silting problems, will encourage the industrialization of central Taiwan and reduce population pressure in the Taipei and Kaohsiung areas to the north and south.
Tamsui, which was an important port before heavy silting by the river and the advent of large ships, was disappointed by the decision. However, the construction of a port there is assured within the next few years. Keelung, the port for Taipei, is already running out of expansion room.
Part of the financing for the two harbors will be sought from Japanese loans and the World and Asia Development Banks. At one time the Japanese did some work on the development of Wuchi. A team of Japanese harbor specialists surveyed both the Wuchi and Tamsui sites before the Executive Yuan's decision.
Taiwan Shipbuilding Corporation has launched a 28,100-ton bulk carrier and laid the keel for a 100,000 ton tanker. The latter will be the largest vessel ever built in Taiwan. The carrier went to the Eddie Steamship Co. Ltd., one of the biggest Chinese lines, and the tanker will be one of three sister ships for the Chinese Petroleum Corporation. Two of these will be constructed by TSC, the third in Japan.
Taiwan Shipbuilding is now the world's 14th largest.
China Airlines has set February 1 for the inauguration of the Republic of China's first transpacific passenger service. Two Boeing 707 jets purchased at a cost of US$21 million will be delivered before the end of this year. The seating will be for 145 passengers.
The route will be from Taipei to Osaka, Tokyo and San Francisco (via the Kuriles, Aleutians and Alaska). On the return, a refueling stop will be made at Anchorage. CAL estimates that it will carry 34,000 passengers between February and the end of 1970 and capture 12 per cent of the San Francisco-Japan market; this is less than the route's annual rate of growth. The frequency will be seven flights a week in each direction.
Under the agreement with the United States, CAL will drop its Okinawa service. In its application for U.S. landing rights, CAL said it had 6.6 million shares of stock owned by 43 Chinese nationals. It listed its equipment as three Boeing 727s, one L1049, seven DC4s, 10 C46s, one Tradewind E18, three C47s and one C45.
The cabinet approved Sino-Indonesian air service. CAL is authorized to operate to Jakarta via such cities as Manila, Hongkong, Saigon, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and a city in Australia. Stops will be at the airline's discretion. Indonesia's Garuda listed Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Phnom Penh, Saigon, Manila, Honglwng and a city in Japan. Frequency will be not more than two flights a week, beginning late this year or early in 1970.
All-cargo service from the United States to Japan, Korea, the Republic of China and Hongkong was started by the Flying Tiger Line, which has been in business since 1945. It was established by veterans of General Claire Chennault's Flying Tigers, who fought the Japanese with distinction before the United States entered World War II.
The DC8 Super 63 aircraft will make daily flights to Tokyo. Hongkong will be served three times a week, Taipei twice and Seoul once. Flying Tiger flights to Okinawa and South Vietnam began some weeks ago. Flights to Manila and Bangkok are contemplated.
Construction of a new Taipei airport at Taoyuan about 20 miles west of the city is expected to begin soon with completion in 1975. The new facility will be built to accommodate supersonic transport planes. No decision has yet been made on the disposition of Taipei's Sungshan airport, which is located on the city's near northeast side.
Plans are proceeding for the 240-mile west coast expressway from Keelung in the north to Fengshan in the south via Taipei and Kaohsiung. The cost is estimated at US$250 million and construction time will be 10 years, starting next July. The initial road will have six lanes with right-of-way retained for the addition of two more. With the installation of traffic exchanges and other safety facilities, a speed limit of 72 miles an hour will be possible for the full distance.
Taiwan's television has already become highly competitive, although the second commercial station will not begin regular programming until October 31.
Getting ready for the challenge, TTV, which has been broadcasting since 1962, announced it would stay on the air daily from 12:30 p.m. until nearly midnight. All-afternoon programming has been offered only on Saturday and Sunday. Both stations plan broadoasts in color. However, Taiwan still has only a few color receivers.
CTV, the newcomer, is owned by the Broadcasting Corporation of China, which is quasi-governmental, and the island's other radio networks and systems. Both stations were keeping specific plans a secret, presumably to be revealed as changes are made.
Judging by the advertising patronage of TTV, there is ample room for a second commercial station. Both TTV and CTV are expected to do well in a business way and give the people of Taiwan an improved fare of entertainment, information and education.
Helen Quach took the Chinese Children's Symphony Orchestra to the Philippines for a series of concerts and returned with a scrapbook full of rave reviews. (See the Culture, science and education department for details.)
Miss Helen is Saigon-born and Australia-educated. In only a few brief years she has become the world's best known Chinese conductor and probably the world's most famous and most competent symphony leader in skirts. She hopes to establish a conservatory in Kaohsiung to give new impetus to the musical development of free China.
Four postage stamps bearing reproductions of famous paintings will be issued on the eve of Double Tenth National Day. The paintings are "Wild Flowers and Pheasants" by Lu Chili of the Ming (on the NT$1 stamp), "Bamboos and Birds" by an unknown artist of the Sung (NT$2.50 stamp), "Flowers and Birds" by another unknown Sung artist (NT$5 stamp) and "Twin Cranes Under the Shade of Flowers" by the Jesuit lay brother G. Castiglione who reached Peking in 1715 and served as court painter to three emperors of Ch'ing (NT$8 stamp).
Twenty papers were presented at the third meeting of the East Asian Altaistic Conference in Taipei. Attending were six scholars from Japan, five from Korea and eleven from China. Studies center on the Mongol, Manchurian and Uigur peoples and their links with Japanese and Korean languages and culture.
A Koxinga shrine was dedicated at Kinmen (Quemoy) on the 345th birthday of the Ming patriot. Koxinga (Cheng Cheng-kung) spent eight months on Kinmen preparing for the 1661 attack on the Dutch occupiers of Taiwan at Tainan. His expeditionary force of 400 junks and 25,000 men sailed from Liao La Bay on April 21 of that year and quickly overwhelmed the Dutch.
The shrine is of reinforced concrete and has gracefully upturned eaves and roof of glazed green tile. The site is a hill near the town of Kinmen. Koxinga's statue is a seated seven-foot figure similar to that at Tainan. The warrior is depicted wearing a mustache. This was once a controversial matter, because Koxinga died at 38, which was considered young for hirsute adornment.
Construction of the shrine was suggested by Deputy Prime Minister Chiang Ching-kuo, who was defense minister at the time. Some of the people of Kinmen are descended from members of Koxinga's expeditionary force.
Another 31 new junior middle schools were completed to serve the needs of the nine-year education program. They have a total of more than 2,100 classrooms.
In Taipei, about 94 per cent of primary school graduates enrolled in the seventh grade. This meant nearly 33,000 new middle school students at 44 schools. For all Taiwan, 73.7 per cent of primary graduates went into junior high .in 1968, the first year of the nine-year program. The percentage of junior high graduates going on to senior high was 86.21 and the percentage of high school graduates going to college was 67.6. In 1963, 79.2 per cent of those finishing high school entered college. The percentage drop does not mean fewer college students but more high school graduates. College and university enrollment is up sharply.
For Taiwan province (excluding Taipei), the Provincial Government's Bureau of Education decided to reduce the average primary or junior high school class size to 55 (from 60). Teachers' pay has been increased by between US$5 and $10 a month. The average now exceeds US$35 monthly. Schools with more than nine classes will have a nurse.
The Taichung Golden Dragons, Little League champions of the world, had expressed a desire to stay together and go to the same school. Madame Chiang Kai-shek made their dream come true. She arranged for the 14 boys to attend Taipei's Hua Hsing Middle School, which is affiliated with the Hua Hsing Children's Home. The Children's Home was established by the First Lady.
In the aftermath of the Little League victory, Taiwan sports authorities made plans for an organized all-island competition next year. The winning team will represent the Republic of China in the Asian finals.
Technical assistance programs to Africa will be augmented as a result of an agreement with Swaziland. A 17-member team will be sent there. Guyana has asked for a team and an agronomist was dispatched to make a survey of possibilities. The assistance accord with the Ivory Coast, where the ROC's largest demonstration team is working, was extended for another two years.
Among the month's distinguished visitors were two groups of U.S. Congressmen. Received by President and Madame Chiang Kai-shek was one group of 11 along with other ranking U.S. officials.
The nation's first couple also welcomed Dr. and Mrs. Walter Guevara Arze. He is Bolivia's permanent representative at the United Nations. Both President Chiang and Vice President C. K. Yen met with Louis DobIes Sanchez, the Costa Rican representative at the U.N.
Japanese dignitaries included Diet member Etsusaburo Shiina and Mrs. Shiina, who were received by President and Madame Chiang. He is a former foreign minister.
Prime Minister Chief Leabua Jonathan of Lesotho met with President Chiang and other Chinese leaders. He said his country will sign a treaty of friendship with the Republic of China. Fourteen parliamentarians came from Venezuela, two judicial officials from Madagascar, a three-man science mission from Korea and General Surakij Mayaltrap, chief of staff of the Royal Thai Army, who was decorated with the Order of Cloud and Banner.
Just as anyone would suspect, women spend more on clothes than men - at least in Taipei. A survey covering the first three months of this year revealed that in the average family, the wife spent more than US$11 for apparel and the husband a mere US$8.50.
Another survey indicated that the affluent life is within reach of more people. Taipei had nearly 45,000 "poor people" last year. The number since has been cut to 38,000 in 8,500 families. The Social Affairs Bureau hopes to eliminate abject poverty entirely within 10 years.
Elevation of railroad tracks in Taipei is expected to get under way next year. The Asian Development Bank has been looking into the US$32.5 million project with a view to assistance with the financing. Designing is already under way.
Five new bridges are to be built across the Tamsui and Hsintien rivers to link Taipei with its suburbs. The cost will be nearly US$11 million.
Work will begin soon on Taipei's first emergency hospital. The cost of the 10-story, 300-bed hospital will be more than US$1,250,000. The staff will include 362 doctors and nurses.
Taipei will be divided into six constituencies for its first election as a special city. Forty-eight councilmen will be chosen November 15. In the national election scheduled for December, Taipei will get six new seats and Taiwan province nine in the National Assembly.
An agreement was signed in Taipei under which Canada will supply a 40-megawatt atomic reactor to speed the Republic of China's research on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. The location will be at Hsinpu near Shihmen in Taoyuan county, northern Taiwan.
The US$35 million installation will be an improved version of the NRX reactor at the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories in Canada and a reactor in India. It will be the second in Taiwan. The first, a 1-kilowatt open pool type, is installed at the National Tsinghua University.
Slated for completion in 1975 is a 550-megawatt commercial reactor to cost US$157.5 million, of which nearly US$80 million will come from the U.S. Export Import Bank.