President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has urged Canada to re-examine and hopefully remove its restrictions on visits by Taiwan's high-level officials.
Chen made the call while meeting a delegation of Canadian lawmakers at the Presidential Office yesterday morning.
As Taiwan is Canada's seventh-largest source of tourists, Chen said he hoped Ottawa would consider offering visa-free privileges to Taiwanese visitors.
Canada also ranks fourth on the list of favorite countries for advanced study for Taiwanese students. There are about 15,000 Taiwanese studying in Canada, a number that has increased by about 2,500 per year.
Chen said he hoped to sign a mutual assistance pact with the Canadian government to combat terrorism and international crime.
Despite the lack of official diplomatic relations, Chen said he was glad that the delegation was visiting to show their friendship, concern and support for Taiwan.
Chen thanked the Canadian parliament for its staunch support and the Canadian government for its concern for peace, security and stability in the Taiwan Strait, as well as for its concern for the health of the Taiwanese people.
The Canadian parliament has passed six resolutions over the past four years in support of Taiwan's bid to join the World Health Assembly as an observer. Canadian Minister of Health Tony Clement spoke in favor of Taiwan's meaningful participation in the WHO after the voting process on May 14.
Ottawa has also expressed strong opposition to China's "Anti-Secession" Law.
As Taiwan enjoyed a US$2.2 billion trade surplus with Canada, the president said he was glad his administration has worked to balance the figures, including conditionally lifting the ban on imports of Canadian beef.
Chen said the decision was based on professional opinions and scientific appraisal. Taiwan is the fifth largest market for Canadian beef. Several Asian markets, including China, Japan and Taiwan, banned Canadian beef after a mad cow case surfaced in Canada in May 2003.
Chen said he would like to see the two countries work for better trade ties and economic cooperation based on the foundation of bilateral trade relations. Taiwan is Canada's 11th biggest trade partner in the world and the 4th in Asia. Bilateral trade was recorded at US$4.6 billion last year.
Two executives of drone supplier Jiin Ming Industry Co (錦明實業) have been detained and held incommunicado over the company's alleged use of prohibited China-made chips and camera lenses in drones supplied under recent military contracts, the Taoyuan District Prosecutors' Office said today. In a statement, prosecutors said they raided the offices of Jiin Ming — headquartered in Taoyuan — as well as those of its subsidiaries and its suppliers on Thursday last week. The raids followed a report that the company had breached its procurement contracts by putting the prohibited components into drones delivered to the military. During the raids, prosecutors summoned
The government would continue monitoring online rumors that a pneumonic plague outbreak has spread from Russia into China and could enhance existing quarantine measures, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said today. During a legislative meeting, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said rumors were circulating that the disease had spread across several Chinese provinces. He asked Cho whether the government was prepared to prevent the disease from spreading to Taiwan, given the frequent exchanges between Taiwan and China, and how concerned the government was about the alleged outbreak. The Ministry of Health and Welfare implemented border quarantine measures after briefing the Executive Yuan
South Korean boy band BigBang drew 120,000 fans to three concerts at Taipei Dome from Friday through yesterday, as the band thanked them for their support over their 20-year career. The Taipei Dome concerts were part of BigBang's "2026-2027 World Tour XX: Cosmos." Friday's concert was BigBang's first performance in Taiwan in 11 years. During the encore, group leader G-Dragon (GD) shouted "I love you" in Chinese and said he was especially happy to perform in Taiwan with bandmates Taeyang and Daesung. "Taipei, I'm very grateful to you all," GD said in Chinese, asking fans to wait for the band's return. Daesung thanked
MAYORAL RACE: Su Chiao-hui made gains by persuading undecided voters and winning over voters in KMT-leaning districts, a pollster said Legislator Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧), the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) candidate for New Taipei City mayor, has a 13.1 percentage point lead over her Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rival Lee Shu-chuan (李四川), a poll released yesterday showed. The poll, commissioned by the Taipei Trust in Democracy Association, showed that 43.1 percent of respondents said they would vote for Su, up 7.9 percentage points from a poll conducted in late August, while support for Lee was at 30 percent, down 4.7 percentage points. It showed that 48.6 percent of respondents thought Su would make a suitable mayor, compared with 35.9 percent for Lee. Independent candidate
RSS