The Executive Yuan yesterday outlined an implementation plan for the government’s “new southbound policy,” which is aimed at boosting ties with 16 ASEAN and South Asian nations, as well as Australia and New Zealand.
The plan is based on four principles — economic cooperation, special talent exchange programs, resource sharing and regional integration — and will pave the way for a regional economic community, Minister Without Portfolio John Deng (鄧振中) said.
Businesses that are among the nation’s flagship industries, such as oil refining, power generation, environmental protection, electronic toll collection and the Internet of Things, will be the first to be marketed to partner nations, Deng said.
Photo: CNA
A trade office “Taiwan Desk” is to be established in other nations to streamline communication between local governments and Taiwanese businesses, he said.
The Executive Yuan will also establish a trade negotiation office — led by Deng — to direct negotiations with 18 partner nations, and the office is to operate independently of the Presidential Office’s New Southbound Policy Office.
“A ‘national team’ will be established to help Taiwanese businesses reach out to foreign markets and find their niche,” Development Council Deputy Minister Kao Shien-quey (高仙桂) said.
“The new southbound policy differs from previous ones in that the government seeks to establish bilateral economic partnerships with Southeast Asian nations instead of unilaterally seeking subcontracts and investment opportunities in those nations,” Kao said.
Kao said that the Council of Agriculture will establish a company to market Taiwanese products and provide technical assistance to other nations, while the Ministry of Science and Technology will launch technology exchange programs focusing on disaster prevention.
Skilled immigrant workers will be eligible to apply for long-term residency and professional certification programs, while the language skills of new immigrants and their children will be used to attract more Southeast Asian tourists and teach Southeast Asian languages to Taiwanese, she said.
The number of occupational training programs is to be increased to raise the number of international students from 28,000 to 56,000 by 2019.
Scholarships are to be provided to Taiwanese students to pursue education opportunities in partner nations, where Taiwanese colleges are to establish campuses.
The government is to invest NT$4.2 billion (US$133.31 million) to implement the policy, she said.
In response to a question on how Taiwan can compete with rivals like China, when Beijing has invested a lot of time and resources into partnering with Southeast Asian nations, Deng said Taiwan’s edge lies in its “soft power” such as people’s sincerity, hospitality and work ethic.
“There is no need to compete with China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative. Taiwanese businesses will also seek investment opportunities created by the Chinese initiative,” Deng said.
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
US President Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday said that “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the “status quo.” “He [Xi] considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing, but I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that,” Trump said. Trump made the comments in the context
SELF-DEFENSE: Tokyo has accelerated its spending goal and its defense minister said the nation needs to discuss whether it should develop nuclear-powered submarines China is ramping up objections to what it sees as Japan’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons, despite Tokyo’s longstanding renunciation of such arms, deepening another fissure in the two neighbors’ increasingly tense ties. In what appears to be a concerted effort, China’s foreign and defense ministries issued statements on Thursday condemning alleged remilitarism efforts by Tokyo. The remarks came as two of the country’s top think tanks jointly issued a 29-page report framing actions by “right-wing forces” in Japan as posing a “serious threat” to world peace. While that report did not define “right-wing forces,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
RSS