As part of the government's downsizing initiative, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday formally announced its decision to scale back operations at five sites overseas -- those in Luxembourg, Mauritius, Uruguay, Rio de Janeiro and Egypt.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (
Instead, Chien said, the decision reflects the redistribution of resources at the ministry.
Chien said that the number of Taiwan's overseas representative offices -- more than 120 -- surpasses those of neighboring countries such as South Korea and Singapore.
He also said the ministry would consider further downsizing, integrating or adding to its overseas representative offices after thorough studies.
Daily operations at these five sites will be handled by Taiwan's nearby representative offices -- those in Brussels, South Africa, Argentina, Sao Paulo and Jordan, a foreign ministry press release said.
But fishing affairs in Mauritius will still be handled by Taiwanese officials posted there by the Council of Agriculture, the press release added.
Out of the five sites slated to be scaled back, four are official representative offices.
Offices in Cairo are unofficial as Taipei failed to create a representative office in the Egyptian capital on a reciprocal basis as scheduled by the end of 2000.
The hang-up is due to obstructionism from China, sources said.
In 2000, it was announced that Taipei and Cairo would establish economic and cultural offices by the end of the year.
But the plans were never realized due to interference from Beijing, officials said.
RSS