Vice President Annette Lu (
Lu made the remarks at a press conference on the El Salvador Taiwan Park during which she and her counterpart from El Salvador, Ana Vilma Albanez de Escobar, agreed that both countries will step up efforts on the ambitious program so as to see initial results in three years.
Lu said the government has set up an organization task force, with Vice Premier Wu Rong-i (
Under the program, El Salvador will supply 114 hectares of national land near Comalapa Airport and will allow Taiwan to develop an industrial park there under a build-operate-transfer (BOT) model. In the second stage, El Salvador will select other suitable land to develop agricultural and aquacultural sectors, and will provide incentives on land and taxes, Lu said.
It is hoped that the Taiwan Park will help local businesses to expand globally, Lu said, adding that state-owned enterprises will be the first to be stationed in the park.
Albanez de Escobar noted that Central America is currently discussing the signing of a free trade agreement (FTA) with the US. If the FTA is signed, Central America will provide a springboard for businesses seeking to make inroads into North America, she said.
She said El Salvador will provide land, 10-year tax-free treatment and other tariff incentives.
Lu said that both governments will sign a cooperation agreement to ensure Taiwanese investment in the park, adding that the Salvadoran government will approve Taiwanese businesspeople's residency and working rights and will provide personal security as well as investment incentives.
Heading a 14-member delegation, Albanez de Escobar, the first female vice president of El Salvador, arrived in Taipei on Monday for a five-day visit.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
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Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
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