Somaliland would officially open a representative office in Taipei early next month, the self-declared east African state’s first representative to Taiwan, Mohamed Omar Hagi Mohamoud, said yesterday.
Preparations are still under way to set up the representative office, but it is expected to start operations on Sept. 9, Mohamoud said.
Working with the representative would be four employees, two who arrived from Somaliland with Mohamoud and two Taiwanese, who have yet to be recruited, he added.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The representative revealed the plan on the sidelines of a seminar held by the Taipei-based Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association on allowing Africa-based Taiwanese businesspeople and African students studying in Taiwan to share their views on exploring trade opportunities on the continent.
It was the first event that Mohamoud has attended since he completed a 14-day quarantine after arriving in Taiwan on Aug. 7.
Mohamoud described relations between Somaliland and Taiwan as “formal,” saying that the proof is February’s agreement signed by their foreign ministers that each would establish a representative office in the other’s country.
High-ranking officials from the two nations participated in a ceremony on Monday last week to mark Taiwan’s opening of its representative office in the Somaliland capital, Hargeisa.
The agreement, designed to pave the way toward greater cooperation, has attracted the ire of China, which considers Taiwan as its territory, and Somalia, which has a similar view of Somaliland.
However, despite Chinese influence and pressure, Mohamoud said that Somaliland’s relationship with Taiwan would remain unaffected.
Somaliland is an independent, sovereign country, Mohamoud said, adding that other countries cannot dictate “with whom we are going to develop relations.”
Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 after a civil war.
Somaliland has set up 22 representative offices, including in Belgium, Canada, France, Switzerland and the US, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
RSS