Taiwan has donated US$700,000 to two APEC sub-funds to highlight the importance of health and technology amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Taiwan has been a member of APEC since joining the 21-member organization under the name “Chinese Taipei” in 1991.
Malaysia, the host for all APEC meetings this year, has informed member states that the second senior officials’ meeting, scheduled for June 15 to 28, is to be postponed due to the pandemic, Department of International Organizations Director-General Bob Chen (陳龍錦) told a regular news briefing in Taipei.
However, a virtual extraordinary senior officials’ meeting for discussing the coronavirus is to be held today, at which local officials are to share the “Taiwan model” for containing the coronavirus, he added.
Chen in February led a delegation to the first senior officials’ meeting in Putrajaya, Malaysia.
Earlier this month, Taiwan donated US$500,000 to APEC’s Human Security Sub-Fund and US$200,000 to its Digital Innovation Sub-Fund, he said.
The purpose of the donations was to increase members’ awareness of the pandemic’s effects on human security, highlight the importance of health for economic growth and free trade in the Asia-Pacific region, and promote the use of digital technology in fighting pandemics, he said.
Representatives from Taiwan were invited to participate in five videoconferences organized by APEC’s Business Advisory Council, Chen said, adding that Acer Inc (宏碁) chairman Jason Chen (陳俊聖), Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) president Jamie Lin (林之晨) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦) chief technology officer Ted Chang (張嘉淵) were appointed as presidential delegates to the meetings.
The first three meetings were held on May 14, May 15 and Tuesday last week, while the remaining two are to be held on Thursday and June 24, Bob Chen added.
In the videoconferences, Jason Chen explained how Acer has helped the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) install disease information systems and called on APEC to attach more importance to cybersecurity by setting up protocols to combat cyberattacks, Bob Chen said.
Chang drew attention to changes and business opportunities brought about by the pandemic, such as increased attention to digital infrastructure, transnational tracking systems and long-distance medical care systems, Bob Chen added.
The pandemic has also fostered a so-called “contactless economy,” which relies on 5G infrastructure, big data, artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies to renovate existing industrial chains, he said.
Lin shared how the nation’s five major telecoms, including Taiwan Mobile, have worked with the CDC to set up “digital fencing” to track returning citizens and foreign tourists required to undergo a 14-day home isolation, as well as a system to broadcast instant messages to maintain contact with them, he said.
Jason Chen and Lin asked Pell Biomed Technology (沛爾生技醫藥) founder Steve Lin (林成龍) and KKday CEO Ming Chen (陳明明) to serve as their deputies, participating in sessions they could not attend, Bob Chen added.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
RSS