British Economic Secretary to the Treasury Andrea Leadsom, who was planning to visit Taipei and Hong Kong next week to promote offshore yuan markets, canceled the trips on Thursday, citing emergency matters at home, the Bankers Association of the ROC (銀行公會) said yesterday.
The association is sponsoring a forum on Taiwan-UK offshore yuan business opportunities in Taipei on Tuesday, at which Leadsom had agreed to give a keynote speech and meet with Taiwanese officials of the central bank, the Ministry of Finance and the Financial Supervisory Commission.
“We received a notice from the British Trade and Cultural Office in Taipei that the member of [the UK] parliament could not make the trip after all,” an official at the bankers’ association said by telephone.
The cultural office attributed the last-minute change to constituent concerns in the UK, but did not elaborate. The country is due to elect new parliamentary members in the first half of next year.
Leadsom, who is the Conservative Member of Parliament for South Northamptonshire, England, is responsible for boosting the UK’s offshore finance businesses. The 51-year-old would have been the first high-ranking UK official to visit Taipei since then-British minister of state for trade and investment Stephen Green in 2011.
Bankers’ association chairwoman Lee Chi-chu (李紀珠), who is also head of state-owned Taiwan Financial Holding Co (台灣金控), flew to London two weeks ago to help confirm the visit, the association said.
The cultural office issued a statement yesterday, saying Leadsom had to postpone her trip due to emergent matters in her constituency.
The trade office offers apology for any inconvenience caused by the schedule change, the statement said.
The yuan forum will go ahead as scheduled, despite Leadsom’s absence, the association said.
“The ongoing student protests in Hong Kong makes the visit somewhat politically sensitive and awkward,” an association official said on condition of anonymity.
Lee is to push for Taiwan-UK cooperation in offshore yuan business and other matters, the association said.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
TRAGEDY STRIKES TAIPEI: The suspect died after falling off a building after he threw smoke grenades into Taipei Main Station and went on a killing spree in Zhongshan A 27-year-old suspect allegedly threw smoke grenades in Taipei Main Station and then proceeded to Zhongshan MRT Station in a random killing spree that resulted in the death of the suspect and two other civilians, and seven injured, including one in critical condition, as of press time last night. The suspect, identified as a man surnamed Chang Wen (張文), allegedly began the attack at Taipei Main Station, the Taipei Fire Department said, adding that it received a report at 5:24pm that smoke grenades had been thrown in the station. One man in his 50s was rushed to hospital after a cardiac arrest
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
ON ALERT: Taiwan’s partners would issue warnings if China attempted to use Interpol to target Taiwanese, and the global body has mechanisms to prevent it, an official said China has stationed two to four people specializing in Taiwan affairs at its embassies in several democratic countries to monitor and harass Taiwanese, actions that the host nations would not tolerate, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which asked him and Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to report on potential conflicts in the Taiwan Strait and military preparedness. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) expressed concern that Beijing has posted personnel from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office to its
RSS