New Southbound Policy Office Director James Huang (黃志芳) has been named chairman of the nation’s main trade promotion body, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), the Executive Yuan said yesterday.
Executive Yuan spokesperson Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said Premier Lin Chuan (林全) approved Huang’s appointment on Friday, but he did not give further details.
Huang, a former minister of foreign affaris, is to succeed Francis Liang (梁國新), who took over as Taiwan’s representative to Singapore last month.
The 58-year-old Huang went into business in 2008 after stepping down as minister when a new administration came in.
“You probably don’t know that I once was in business overseas,” Huang said on a previous occasion, adding that he worked hard to learn Vietnamese and that he had many ideas on how to promote trade.
In related news, the Executive Yuan on Friday said that the nation’s exports under the “new southbound policy” totaled US$5.37 billion last month, up 20 percent from the same month in 2015.
Among them, exports to Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos totaled US$4.72 billion, up 22.9 percent from December 2015.
The “new southbound policy,” introduced by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), seeks to promote ties with the ASEAN nations, as well as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Australia and New Zealand.
However, talent exchanges increased at a much slower pace. Students from those nations studying in Taiwan totaled 29,145 last year, up only 2.1 percent from the 28,550 in the 2015 academic year.
Among them, the number of students from ASEAN totaled 27,264, up 1.9 percent year-on-year. One noteworthy change was that the number of students from South Asia was up 12.4 percent year-on-year, totaling 1,443.
Government agencies are to allocate more resources this year to boost the number of South Asian or Southeast Asian students coming to Taiwan, the office said.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
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