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.
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
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert
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