Daily Links

Links... plus an event! Too busy to blog tonight....

• Don't miss: Tairadical's rip of the Lien Family
• Ben's analysis of Taipei City District 2
• AmCham has piece on making Taiwan into a Silicon Valley in Asia. Nope, won't happen.
• Commonwealth is featuring Hong Kong this month with another set of articles. Enjoy this on one Hong Kongers moving to Taiwan.
• Vietnam firm sent 43,000 tons of oil to Taiwan over the years.
• Great letter from David Pendery in TT on student happiness in Taiwan
• You've been following the big protests in Hong Kong Mexico, right?
• Beautiful pics/story of riding to waterfalls around the Tsengwen Reservoir
• Save our Sanctuary: 30% funded -- dog shelter in Taiwan needs your help!
• Hong Kong's endless road to democracy
• Taiwan test fires sub launched missiles.
• Owner's Engineer appointed for offshore wind farm in Taiwan.

EVENT: Discussion of upcoming elections!

ECCT PREMIUM EVENT JOINTLY HOSTED WITH ICRT
November 2014 megacity election preview (link to website)
Speakers: Shen Fu-hsiung 沈富雄, Political and economic commentator/Joanna Lei 雷倩, CEO, Chunghua 21st Century Think Tank/Joseph Wu (Jau-shieh) 吳釗燮, Secretary-General, Democratic Progressive Party
Moderator: Gavin Phipps, ICRT News Department
12:00-14:00, Thursday, 30 October, 2014, Regent Taipei, VIP 1 (4F) /台北晶華酒店,貴賓廳1 (4F)
No. 3, Lane 39, Sec 2 Zhongshan N Rd, Taipei 104, Taiwan /台北市中山北路二段39巷3號
Click read more for synopsis:
Metropolitan elections will be held on Saturday, 29 November 2014, to elect the municipal mayors, municipal councilors and ward chiefs of the six special municipalities or megacities (Taipei, Kaohsiung, New Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Taoyuan (which will become Taiwan’s sixth and newest megacity). Ahead of the election, the ECCT, together with International Community Radio Taipei (ICRT) will be hosting a panel of high profile experts from across the political spectrum for a special election preview event. Panelists will discuss and analyse the various races, the candidates, their election prospects and the implications for the political climate, business and trade, depending on the outcome. Given that the guests represent different political camps, have very different opinions and are all very outspoken, it promises to be an interesting and entertaining discussion.

Among other subjects, our panelists will discuss:
- The mayoral candidates and their election prospects.
- What has changed since the last major elections in 2012? Will there be an impact from the “sunflower movement” and other opposition movements in any of the races?
- The implications of a change in the status quo for business and trade should the opposition win any of the races in northern or central Taiwan. Will the government take a more protectionist approach to trade?
- What business opportunities can we look forward to after the election? What opportunities are there for European business related to the aerotropolis project, new MRT or light rail systems in New Taipei, Taoyuan and Tainan, reconstruction work in Kaohsiung following the gas disaster and opportunities related to free economic pilot zones.
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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!