Some Control Yuan members believe the nation’s international public relations (PR) efforts lack coordination and want the Executive Yuan to play a more proactive role in integrating the campaigns, which are run by different government agencies.
Control Yuan members Bao Tzong-ho (包宗和), Chiang Chi-wen (江綺雯) and Wang Mei-yu (王美玉) set up a taskforce to investigate the operation and effect of the government’s international PR efforts following the shuttering of the Government Information Office (GIO) in 2012.
They invited Cabinet spokesperson Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) to a taskforce meeting, where they said the Executive Yuan should take the reins in coordinating PR campaigns.
Sun said that the Cabinet has been doing just that.
However, it does not have the budget to do more as the money for ad-related activities is allotted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he said.
Bao and several other Control Yuan members visited Japan in July to study how the nation conducts its international advertising campaigns.
They said they found that Tokyo conducts strategic and extensive campaign instead of superficial activities, while Japanese institutions also teach Japanese to foreigners to help them become more familiar with the nation’s culture via their understanding of the language.
The tasks involving international advertising that were once handled by the GIO are now under the aegis of the foreign ministry, the Ministry of Culture and several other Executive Yuan agencies, Bao said, adding that advertising has always been crucial for the Republic of China because of its diplomatic status.
The government should market Taiwan’s soft power to the world to help the international community understand its advantages, encourage foreigners to travel to Taiwan and promote a positive image of the nation, Bao said.
The advertising work should be integrated to achieve the greatest results, Bao said, adding that the Executive Yuan should assume a leading role in integrating and coordinating international advertising.
The Control Yuan’s end-of-the-year report will present concrete suggestions as to how it can do that, he said.
Sung said the Executive Yuan’s Department of Public Relations and the foreign ministry’s Department of International Information Services did have some adjustment issues on coordination in the beginning, but they are working well together now, with information from the Executive Yuan being passed to the foreign ministry and then to the world fairly quickly.
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