Taiwan has given permission to the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) to set up an office in Taipei. The office will be the special administrative region’s first official organization in Taiwan, HKTDC Spokesman William Cheung (張志輝) said on Thursday.
The council applied to Taiwanese authorities earlier this year to establish an office in Taipei, and received approval on Thursday, Cheung said, adding that the council welcomed the decision.
The council was established in 1966 as the international marketing arm of Hong Kong and now has 40 offices around the world, Cheung said.
The council has rented an office in Taipei, and will send one staff member from Hong Kong, while other personnel will be recruited locally, Cheung said.
The Taipei office is being established to enhance bilateral trade relations and promote Hong Kong’s services industry, with financial services, logistics and real estate being the focus, Cheung said. The Taipei office will also help to boost cooperation between the two sides in technology development and the entertainment industry, he said.
Taiwan is Hong Kong’s fourth largest trade partner in terms of volume, with bilateral trade volume standing at US$33.25 billion for last year, Cheung said, citing council statistics.
Bilateral trade for the period from January to August this year stood at US$22 billion, up by 2.4 percent from the same period last year, he said. The figures show that Taiwanese exports to Hong Kong were worth US$17 billion while Hong Kong’s exports to Taiwan were worth US$5 billion, Cheung said.
Cheung said that the Taiwan market would offer more business opportunities for Hong Kong with the continued improvement of relations between Taiwan and China.
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
RSS