60249    Nine countries have finished the domestic procedure, though they have yet to deposit letters.

60250    Three people, ex-President of Mexico, Carlos Salinas de Gotari, former Minister for Foreign Trade of Italy, Renato Ruggiero, and former Minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy of South Korea, Kim are running for the seat of 1st director-general.

60251    Southerland will work as an interim director-general until the election result comes in the middle of March.

60252    The Dow Jones Industrial Average on the 30th, the end of the trading for 1994, was at 3,834.44 dollars, up 1.01 dollars from the previous day.

60253    In November, it went below 3,700 dollars.

60254    However, it recovered after that, and the stock price remains steady, reflecting quiet long-term interest rates.

60255    The air route between Hong Kong and Taipei is highest in transport volume among the international routes.

60256    It is the biggest gold mine for Cathay Pacific in Hong Kong and China Airlines in Taiwan.

60257    The main reason is that as many as a million and a few hundred thousand Taiwanese go to China through Hong Kong every year, because the Taiwanese government does not permit direct flights to China.

60258    This is not only the case with passenger planes.

60259    The amount of indirect trade between China and Taiwan through Hong Kong reaches as much as 15 billion dollars a year.

60260    This happens also because a cargo ship service is not allowed between the two countries.

60261    If they did not have to go through Hong Kong, which would be a blow to it, the Taiwan-China route would be a new gold mine.

60262    The US was so quick to notice the chance.

60263    US Secretary of Transportation Federico Pena, who visited Taiwan in December, requested the Taiwanese government to let the US take part in the direct traffic when realized.