President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is scheduled to make his fourth trip abroad since entering office in May last year to attend a fall leadership summit between Taiwan and its South Pacific allies, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday.
The summit will take place sometime between October and November.
This year’s meeting will be held in the Solomon Islands, where Ma visited once in 1997 when he was a professor at National Taiwan University, said Lee Tsung-fen (李宗芬), deputy director of the Department of East Asian Affairs.
All heads of state of Taiwan’s six allies in the region — Nauru, Kiribati, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands and Palau — are expected to attend the meeting, she said.
The main focus of this year’s meeting will be on countering the current economic contraction, climate change and how to strengthen the fisheries industry. Taiwan will also seek to forge partnerships with the allies on several long-term joint ventures, Lee said.
Lee said Ma developed a fondness for the Pacific region during his previous visit to the Solomon Islands when he saw a handful of children at a market selling betel nuts and watermelons while wearing shirts donated by the people of Taiwan.
If possible, the ministry will arrange for the president to visit one or two more allies during the visit, MOFA said.
This would be Ma’s fourth overseas trip as president. He is expected to go to Latin America for the third time later this month to attend the inauguration of Panamanian president-elect Ricardo Martinelli.
The first two F-16V Bock 70 jets purchased from the US are expected to arrive in Taiwan around Double Ten National Day, which is on Oct. 10, a military source said yesterday. Of the 66 F-16V Block 70 jets purchased from the US, the first completed production in March, the source said, adding that since then three jets have been produced per month. Although there were reports of engine defects, the issue has been resolved, they said. After the jets arrive in Taiwan, they must first pass testing by the air force before they would officially become Taiwan’s property, they said. The air force
GLOBAL: Although Matsu has limited capacity for large numbers of domestic tourists, it would be a great high-end destination for international travelers, an official said Lienchiang County’s (Matsu) unique landscape and Cold War history give it great potential to be marketed as a destination for international travelers, Tourism Administration Director General Chen Yu-hsiu (陳玉秀) said at the weekend. Tourism officials traveled to the outlying island for the Matsu Biennial, an art festival that started on Friday to celebrate Matsu’s culture, history and landscape. Travelers to Matsu, which lies about 190km northwest of Taipei, must fly or take the state-run New Taima passenger ship. However, flights are often canceled during fog season from April to June. Chen spoke about her vision to promote Matsu as a tourist attraction in
PAWSITIVE IMPACT: A shop owner said that while he adopted cats to take care of rodents, they have also attracted younger visitors who also buy his dried goods In Taipei’s Dadaocheng (大稻埕), cats lounging in shops along Dihua Street do more than nap amid the scent of dried seafood. Many have become beloved fixtures who double as photography models, attracting visitors and helping boost sales in one of the capital’s most historic quarters. A recent photo contest featuring more than a dozen shop cats drew more than 2,200 submissions, turning everyday cat-spotting into a friendly competition that attracted amateur and professional photographers. “It’s rare to see cats standing, so when it suddenly did, it felt like a lucky cat,” said Sabrina Hsu (徐淳蔚), who won the NT$10,000 top prize in
STRIKE: Some travel agencies in Taiwan said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group tours to the country were proceeding as planned A planned strike by airport personnel in South Korea has not affected group tours to the country from Taiwan, travel agencies said yesterday. They added that they were closely monitoring the situation. Personnel at 15 airports, including Seoul’s Incheon and Gimpo airports, are to go on strike. They announced at a news conference on Tuesday that the strike would begin on Friday next week and continue until the Mid-Autumn Festival next month. Some travel agencies in Taiwan, including Cola Tour, Lion Travel, SET Tour and ezTravel, said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group
RSS