Taiwan and Slovakia are slated to establish representative offices on a reciprocal basis next week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced yesterday.
"Through steady negotiations over the past year ... the Taipei Representative Office, Bratislava, is scheduled to be formally established on Aug. 1," Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (
Bratislava will then set up its economic and culture office in the World Trade Center building in downtown Taipei later in the month, officials said.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES:
Taiwan's deputy representative to Germany, Chen Cheng-chi (
The ministry had attempted to set up the office under the name "Taiwan Representative Office, Bratislava," but this proposal was rejected due to Beijing's opposition, Chien said.
Both offices will have visa-issuing powers, Chien said.
In March of last year, both sides signed an agreement on the establishment of representative offices on a reciprocal basis.
The foreign ministry has dispatched personnel to Bratislava during the past few months in an attempt to prepare for the formal opening of the representative office, sources said.
"Over two months ago we chose the site for our representative office ... which will be in the same building as the Canadian embassy and the Irish embassy," Chien said.
Roy Wu (
Chien has also met with high-ranking Slovakian officials regarding the agreement, the insider said, although the minister declined to further disclose any face-to-face contacts he has had with Slovakian officials.
The Slovak Republic gained its independence in 1993 following the negotiated break-up of the former Czechoslovakia.
As part of the four-member Visegrad group of countries, which includes the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, Slovakia, in November last year, was invited by NATO to become a member of the alliance.
Along with nine other countries including the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, Slovakia is also expected to join the EU next May.
Chien said the new representative office in Bratislava is expected to further boost the economic exchanges between Taiwan and the central and eastern European region.
"For Taiwan, there's a great
investment opportunity out there," Chien said.
A business delegation from Taipei is expected to visit Slovakia in September, Chien said.
According to Taiwan's official statistics, trade volume between Taiwan and Slovakia reached US$19.7 million last year.
But Slovakian official figure told a different story, saying the trade volume in the same year amounted to US$90 million.
The establishment of the representative offices is expected to boost substantial ties between the two countries in the areas of trade, investment, culture and tourism,ministry officials said at the news conference.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS