Following the goal set by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of Taiwan joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a regional free-trade agreement currently being negotiated by the US and eight other countries, government officials said yesterday that the Greater Kaohsiung could be designated as a demonstration area for free trade.
“Greater Kaohsiung stands a good chance of being selected as a demonstration area for free trade,” Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) told Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) in a question-and-answer session at the legislature.
“Without a doubt, Greater Kaohsiung, where the country’s first export processing zone was established [in 1966], should become the locomotive of economic development,” Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) added.
On Thursday Ma, who is seeking re-election in January, unveiled his “golden 10-year” prospects, pledging to make conditions favorable for Taiwan’s inclusion in the TPP that the US, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam are negotiating.
As the TPP’s aim is to form a quality regional free-trade agreement, the government needs to designate multiple venues in the country for further market liberalization in 10 years in line with the envisaged free-trade treaty before the country can join it, Shih said.
The South Star Plan (南星計畫), the project designed to accommodate excavated soil from construction sites near Kaohsiung Harbor that spans 106 hectares, could be designated as one of the free-trade harbor areas, Wu said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
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