Magistrate defends her overseas trips

The Control Yuan, the nation's highest watchdog agency supervising the performance of government agencies and public servants, decided to conduct a probe into the rampant junket tours taken by Taiwan administrators and elected officials who may abuse taxpayer-funded trips overseas.

The case involving Kuang could be at the top of the list in view of its significant publicity in local media.

Media here also widely reported that there are many other elected officials who actually took more overseas journeys than Kuang did.

' Joining the world'

But Prof. Charles H.C. Kao, a founder of the CommonWealth Group and the Global Views monthly, came to the defense of some officials.

Kao said Hsinchu Mayor Lin Jung-tzer's overseas have markedly helped him improve his performance in administration and public service.

The mayor has made 17 such visits over the past two years, the highest among elected officials, according to the counts of media.

With well planning, visits abroad can help local people and the whole nation to effectively "join the world," Kao said.

He made the remarks on Monday as he honored Lin for ranking first in three categories -- approval rating, contributions to the local economy and pride of residents of their city or country -- in a competitiveness survey conducted by the Global View magazine of Taiwan's 25 cities and counties in 2008.

Kao said that in the overall performance of the city and county chief survey, Lin was first, followed by Taichung Mayor Jason Hu, and Taoyuan Magistrate Eric Liluan Chu.

Lin for his part said he has learned a great deal as a result of his overseas visits, citing a series of concrete examples.

He noted that "a lot of time can be shortened if we learn directly from other countries."

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