The nation is to continue its efforts to strengthen bilateral economic ties with countries in the Asia-Pacific region and seek trade liberalization, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Ministry spokeswoman Anna Kao (高安) made the remarks at a regular news briefing, amid reports of Chinese opposition to a Taiwan-Malaysia free-trade agreement (FTA).
Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia Huang Huikang (黃惠康) openly expressed Beijing’s opposition to any move by Malaysia to sign an FTA with Taiwan.
The Chinese government has always maintained that Taiwan is part of China and would object to any official activity between Malaysia and Taiwan, including the signing of an FTA, Huang said during a question-and-answer session after delivering a speech at a Malaysian university on Tuesday, reports said.
Asked about the reports, John Lai (賴建中), director-general of the ministry’s Department of International Cooperation and Economic Affairs, said Malaysia is Taiwan’s eighth-largest economic partner.
Since Taiwan and Malaysia are both members of the APEC and the WTO, Lai said that strengthening bilateral economic ties would be beneficial to businesses in the two countries.
Trade liberalization is a global trend, the director-general added.
Taiwan is seeking to sign economic cooperation agreements with countries such as Japan, Malaysia and the Philippines, as part of efforts to strengthen its economic ties in the region.
The nation has already signed economic cooperation agreements with Singapore and New Zealand, as well as an Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported
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