Progress made in enhancing Taiwan’s bilateral ties with Singapore and New Zealand in the form of economic cooperation agreements would help the country secure a seat in the emerging Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade bloc, Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) said yesterday.
Yang called an informal press conference to highlight the significance of the announcement made in Taiwan and New Zealand on Tuesday that the two nations had started a feasibility study on a bilateral economic cooperation agreement.
New Zealand was one of several countries that had expressed an interest in signing economic pacts with Taiwan when the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) was negotiated, Yang said.
Yang said that New Zealand wishes to become the first country to sign a free-trade agreement with Taiwan after the ECFA was signed, which suggests that “New Zealand places great emphasis on the issue.”
Taiwan and Singapore began formal talks under the title “Agreement between Singapore and the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu on Economic Partnership” earlier this year after they completed a four-month study on the feasibility of such a deal.
In addition to Singapore and New Zealand, which were both among the four countries that conceived and launched the TPP in 2006 along with Chile and Brunei, Taiwan is also working with India and Indonesia on feasibility studies for similar economic agreements, Yang said, adding that the Philippines would be the next country to follow suit.
With the economic cooperation mechanisms with Singapore and New Zealand under negotiation, Taiwan would not only deepen bilateral relationships with its major trading partners other than China, but also significantly boost its chances of participating in regional economic integration, such as the TPP, Yang said.
Meanwhile, Yang said he expected a preliminary timetable for the signing of an open-skies agreement with Japan to liberalize bilateral commercial aviation exchanges to be set sometime in the middle of next month.
Japan called off the previously scheduled signing of the aviation pact on Sept. 27 at the last minute without offering specific reasons, but the two countries proceeded with the signing of an investment agreement as scheduled.
Yang said that Japan did not cancel the signing because of pressure from Beijing. The investment agreement would not have been signed if China had been a factor, he said.
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Holding NV yesterday said that it is planning to hire an additional 1,000 people in Taiwan this year in response to growing demand from clients. ASML had previously planned to recruit 600 people this year, but that the plan has been adjusted upward, ASML vice president and ASML Taiwan general manager Grace Wang (汪佳慧) told reporters. ASML has a workforce of more than 4,500 in Taiwan, accounting for about 10 percent of its global total, Wang said. This year’s recruitment campaign would focus on adding people in the customer support, manufacturing and supply chain domains to assist ASML
Nvidia Corp yesterday announced that CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) would attend an employee meeting in Taipei tomorrow to celebrate the launch of the company’s Taiwan headquarters project. Huang would attend a gathering at the site of Nvidia’s planned headquarters in Beitou Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區), the company said in a statement. After arriving in Taiwan on Saturday last week, Huang told reporters that he plans to meet with Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), and would attend the groundbreaking ceremony for Nvidia’s Taiwan headquarters tomorrow. Nvidia has not yet applied
RSS