As the deadline for the renewal of the Taiwan-Hong Kong aviation pact approaches, Minister of Transportation and Communica-tions Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) assured lawmakers yesterday that air travel between the two will not stop.
"We won't allow air travel between Taiwan and Hong Kong to falter. The special committee led by the Mainland Affairs Council is dealing with this issue right now," Yeh said.
Yeh made the comment before the Legislative Yuan's Transportation and Communications Commission yesterday, in response to questions raised by People First Party lawmaker Liu Wen-hsiung (
Although the agenda for yesterday's commission meeting was to focus on the ministry's budget, many legislators expressed concern about the pact, which ends Dec. 31.
Yeh would not elaborate on how talks on the matter are progressing.
"Since the relationship between Hong Kong, China and Taiwan is sensitive, I can't say much about the progress on negotiations, because it would involve [revealing] the committee's negotiating strategy," Yeh said.
But Yeh said that she would definitely comply with a consensus on the deal made at the Economic Development Advisory Conference, which was to adopt a "non-government to non-government" model of negotiation.
Major Taiwanese carriers China Airlines and EVA Airways -- which depend heavily on the profitable route -- are still allowing customers to book January flights to Hong Kong, officials from the two airlines said.
As for what they would do with those January tickets should the pact not be renewed, officials from both of the carriers said it was to early to speculate.
The aviation pact was signed as a five-year pact in 1996 before Hong Kong returned to China. The pact expired on June 12. At that time, the two sides failed to renew the agreement, but extended it until the end of this year.
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