The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) yesterday insisted it has received the green light from the Cambodian government to open a Taiwan trade center in Phnom Penh.
TAITRA, a non-profit trade promotion organization affiliated with the Ministry of Economic Affairs, made the remarks in response to media reports that Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen would block the establishment of the office.
In a press statement, TAITRA said it has obtained a “certificate of incorporation” to set up an office in Phnom Penh, which will be registered as the “Branch of Taiwan Trade Center Inc.”
The certificate was issued by the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce, TAITRA said.
According to a report published yesterday by the English-language the Cambodia Daily, Hun Sen ordered the Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to get a local newspaper, Rasmei Kampuchea, to correct a front-page article lifted from the Taipei Times’ news Web site, which said the Cambodian government had approved TAITRA’s plan.
“This story is very sensitive for Cambodia’s foreign affairs policy which implemented the one China policy a long time ago,” Hun Sen was quoted by the Cambodia Daily as saying.
Cambodia’s official policy does not allow Taiwan to have offices in the country “in any circumstances,” the paper also quoted Hun Sen as saying.
“We do not authorize any [Taiwanese] national ceremonies or the raising of the flag of Taiwan on Cambodia’s land, even in hotels,” Hun Sen added.
“We especially do not allow this as Taiwan is just one province of China,” he told the daily, referring to TAITRA chairman Wang Chih-kang’s (王志剛) statement on Wednesday in Taipei that the center was expected to be officially launched in Phnom Penh next month.
Wang was unable to comment yesterday, but TAITRA issued a statement later yesterday after Wang had finished a meeting.
Wang’s announcement about the center was warmly welcomed by the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce, with its director-general, Nguon Meng Tech, reportedly saying on Friday: “I have been waiting for a long time as I had suggested [the Taiwan trade center] to the former minister of commerce [Cham Prasidh] twice, but had no response.”
When asked about his views on Hun Sen’s remarks by the Cambodia Daily, Meng Tech declined to comment about political matters, but insisted that the opening of a Taiwanese trade center in Phnom Penh would be a valuable trade tool.
“Many Taiwanese companies go to invest in Vietnam and it brings in a lot of money, but Cambodia does not receive as much [investment] from Taiwan, that’s why I suggested to the government to have a trade center with Taiwan,” he was quoted as saying in the report.
An official at TAITRA who wished to remain anonymous told the Taipei Times yesterday that the trade organization has not received any information from their counterparts in Cambodia about the Phnom Penh government planning to rescind the certificate.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
RSS