Asian and European business leaders at a joint forum pushed for greater trade between their regions yesterday, with Asians calling for more transfer of technology to their countries and Europeans seeking Asian investment.
Speakers at the opening of the Asia-Europe Business Forum IX, held on the sidelines of the fifth Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), praised burgeoning trade between the two regions, home to some of the world's biggest corporations and its fastest-growing economies.
ASEM, with the scheduled addition of 13 members yesterday, will comprise a market of 2.7 billion consumers, making up 46 percent of world GDP and 43 percent of its trade volume, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan told delegates.
"Today, Asia and Europe are key trade and investment partners of each other," Khoan told delegates. "However, the scope of cooperation matches neither the potentials of the two continents nor the needs of the new situation."
Asian delegates focused on urging European companies to step up transfers of technology to Asian countries and corporations to boost productivity and redress the vast gap in development between the two regions.
Yu Ping, vice chairman of the China Council for Promotion of International Trade, said Chinese companies were also interested in intensifying joint research and development with Europeans. He also called for freer trade between the two regions.
"Chinese business circles at present are especially concerned about how and when the barriers and obstacles to trade imposed by the developed countries on the developing countries could be reduced and removed," he said.
The Europeans, however, said the two sides should also address the serious imbalances in the direction of trade and investment between the two regions.
For instance, the quantity of Asian goods being sold in Europe dwarfs the amount of European goods being sold in Asia, said Jacques Gravereau, president of France's HEC Eurasia Institute.
The EU buys an average of US$285 billion in Asian goods a year, but the EU makes only US$160 billion in sales in Asia, and the growth of EU sales in Asia is much lower than in other parts of the world, he said.
``We in Europe are in favor of cross-border investment, but cross-border investment is not a one-way street,'' said German delegation chief Gert Vogt, urging Asian companies to invest and set up production facilities in Europe.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique