President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) believes textiles should be at the heart of Taiwan’s thinking in developing new global trade arrangements and strategies, the Presidential Office said in a statement yesterday.
The statement cited Tsai as saying during her recent visit to four of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in Central America that she judged the textile sector in Central America to have considerable development potential.
The countries have free-trade agreements with the US that could be advantageous for Taiwanese manufacturers in the region, she said.
Photo: CNA
With Taiwan Textile Federation chairman Chan Cheng-tien (詹正田) to propose a new strategy for the global development of Taiwan’s textile sector, “this is the time to begin thinking about new arrangements and new strategies, starting with the textile sector,” Tsai said, according to the statement.
Tsai made the remarks at a lunch with more than 800 Taiwanese expats in San Francisco on Saturday, according to the statement.
Chan was a member of Tsai’s delegation during the overseas tour.
Tsai made a stopover in Houston on Jan. 7 and Sunday last week before heading to Central America and arrived in San Francisco on Friday for a transit stop, at the conclusion of a week-long state visit to Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador.
Tsai opened a new Twitter account on Saturday during a visit to the company’s San Francisco headquarters.
At the Twitter headquarters, she met with Twitter general counsel Vijaya Gadde, but CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey was not present, according to a Reuters report that cited a source at the meeting.
Tsai activated a Twitter account in English during her visit. She has a Chinese-language account that she has not used for a few years, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) said.
Tsai also attended a lunch with Taiwanese expats at the Hyatt Regency hotel near San Francisco International Airport.
Some protesters rallied against Tsai’s China stance outside the hotel, while others gathered to show their support for the president.
Tsai also attended a ceremony marking the opening of the Executive Center for the Asian Silicon Valley Plan in Silicon Valley on Saturday.
Tsai launched the Asian Silicon Valley Plan in September last year in a bid to “connect Taiwan to global tech clusters and create new industries for the next generation.”
Tsai said she hoped the center would build links with high-tech companies and research institutions in the area so that high-value supply chains of technology, talent and capital could be created to support the plan’s implementation.
The base for the plan’s implementation was inaugurated in Taoyuan on Dec. 25 last year.
During the stopover, Tsai also spoke with a few US friends of Taiwan by telephone, Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said, but the only person he was willing to reveal was US Senator Cory Gardner.
Gardner told Tsai that he asked US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of state — former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson — to reaffirm the US’ commitment to Taiwan, based on the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) and the “six assurances,” during Tillerson’s Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday last week.
Tsai thanked Gardner and the US for their support for Taiwan, and she invited him to visit Taiwan, Huang said.
She was scheduled to return to Taiwan late yesterday evening Taipei time.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)