The UK is hoping to hold a roundtable conference with Taiwan aimed at establishing closer bilateral financial cooperation, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) said on Tuesday after having recently visited Britain.
One of Taiwan’s advantages is the almost 300 billion yuan (US$48.38 billion) deposits it has in its banking system, Kuan said, adding that this is of interest to the UK in its efforts to strengthen cooperation with Taiwan in the banking sector.
Speaking to the media, Kuan said he hopes the proposed conference will be organized “as soon as possible,” adding that he has already forwarded the suggestion to Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺).
Kuan said that on his trip to the UK, he and his delegation met with British officials and academics from local think tanks.
Taiwan’s huge yuan deposits were a point of interest to British Economic Secretary to the Treasury Andrea Leadsom and Lord Mayor of London Fiona Woolf, Kuan said.
He added that the two British officials expressed hopes for greater cooperation between Taipei and London in the areas of yuan transactions and retirement pension systems.
Kuan said that expanding bilateral financial cooperation would benefit the nation as it could learn a lot from the UK, as it is a global banking and financial services hub.
Such cooperation would also encourage more foreign financial service providers to set up branches in the country, he added.
He suggested that Taiwan expand its international cooperation efforts to banking, saying that this could help pave the way for partnerships in other industries.
In late August 2012, Taiwan and China signed an agreement to set up a currency clearing mechanism.
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