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One of the top stories from this past week was the avian flu outbreak, which was showing no signs of dying down. Over two million birds have been culled in Taiwan as a result.
The geese population has been affected the most, and 90% of it has been culled.
But agricultural official Jiang Wen-quan said the situation would not affect the supply for Chinese New Year.
Geese are produced seasonally with many of them born during the fourth and first quarters. The current culling of a high number of geese will still have a major impact on the industry.
2)
Also this past week, new statistics showed that Taiwan’s economy grew 3.51% last year, slightly above the government’s initial forecast of 3.43%. That’s according to an advance estimate released by the government statistics office on Friday.
According to the office, Taiwan’s GDP growth during the fourth quarter of 2014 reached 4.17%. This exceeded the office’s prediction of 2.83% growth.
The office said that despite a series of food safety scandals in Taiwan in the fourth quarter, the domestic economy remained stable and continued to grow. But the office also said that the food safety scares did hurt consumer sentiment to some extent.
3)
And finally, this past week, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je apologized for a gaffe he made about a watch given to him by British Transport Minister Baroness Susan Kramer.
The visiting British minister gave the mayor a pocket watch as a gift during their meeting in Taipei on Monday. In Chinese culture, it’s a social taboo to give other people a watch or a clock as the objects are considered an ill omen. The Chinese phrase for “give clock” sounds like “saying farewell to a person who just died”.
When asked by the local media whether he found the gift unacceptable, Ko said the watch is useless to him and that he might sell it to a scrap metal dealer for some money.
Ko came under fire for being blunt and impolite. Speaking at a press conference Tuesday, the mayor said he would like to apologize to the British dignitary and to the British foreign office. The straightforward mayor also said he will take a class about diplomatic protocol.