MOFA may cut overseas offices

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs plans to reduce the number of representative offices overseas in a bid to streamline its operations abroad, Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (簡又新) said yesterday.

But the ministry is still evaluating how many of the representative offices to eliminate, and it still doesn't know yet which of the 126 will be closed.

"We are sure that we'll close a number of overseas representative offices that we consider no longer efficient," Chien said. "But the exact number has yet to be decided, as we are still assessing information that we've gathered from our offices abroad."

Chien made the remarks yesterday at a symposium to discuss the performance of the foreign affairs ministry.

Academics and members of the legislature's foreign affairs committee were also present.

Chien said the ministry doesn't plan to close any of 13 overseas representative offices in the US. But offices elsewhere in the world would be up for review.

The foreign minister said four factors would be taken into consideration when deciding which offices to close.

"We'll consider dissolving an overseas representative office in any country that has few political or diplomatic contacts with our representative office, possesses a low value in relation to our diplomatic strategy and our economic interests and does not have vast number of Taiwanese nationals residing within [that country]," Chien said.

Chien said the ministry would decide which offices would be closed by summer.

Katharine Chang (張小月), spokeswoman for the foreign affairs ministry, said that the nation's embassies wouldn't be affected by the changes.

Currently, Taiwan has official diplomatic ties with 28 countries.

Chien said that closing inefficient representative offices would save money and human resources.

"By closing those offices that are no longer efficient, the ministry can instead reassign resources and energy to other matters," Chien said.

Several legislators at yesterday's symposium said they supported the move. They said the ministry could redirect resources to areas that are more beneficial to the nation's interests and national security.

"For example, we should work to strengthen Taiwan's relations with the US and Japan," DPP lawmaker Parris Chang (張旭成) said.

Chien likened implementing changes at the foreign ministry to steering a large vessel. "Foreign affairs is like a big boat," he said.

"It's hard to make a 90 degree-turn immediately; you must proceed with a moderate and gradual pace."