Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) protested Taiwan’s designation as “Taipei, China” at the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) annual meeting, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
A ministry official in Chuang’s delegation to the meeting in Incheon, South Korea, said by telephone that Chuang repeated Taiwan’s demand to correct the name and voiced “our disagreement over the unilateral alteration of our membership designation.”
Established in 1966, the bank is owned by 68 members, with 49 from the region. Chuang serves as a board governor.
Photo courtesy of Asian Development Bank
Taiwan was one of the bank’s founding members, but it has been called “Taipei, China” since 1986, when the People’s Republic of China joined the bank.
Chuang protested the designation during her speech, saying that Taiwan has fulfilled its obligations and responsibilities as a member of the bank, the ministry said.
She urged ADB member nations to respect each other and allow Taiwan to participate in the bank’s activities on an equal footing.
On its Web site, the Manila-headquartered bank says that Taiwan has provided it with US$1.54 billion in capital as of Dec. 31 last year, and has also contributed or committed US$133.43 million to the bank’s special funds since becoming a member.
A total of 1,102 goods, works and related service contracts worth US$1.51 billion, and 83 consulting contracts valued at US$49.67 million, have been awarded to contractors, suppliers and consultants from “Taipei, China,” the Web site says.
The annual meeting was held from Tuesday through Friday under the theme of “Rebounding Asia: Recover, Reconnect and Reform.”
The ministry official said that Chuang discussed a range of topics at the annual meeting, with a particular focus on climate change, regional cooperation and gender equality.
She urged the bank to make stronger and more effective efforts to build climate resilience for environmentally vulnerable developing member countries, such as small island states, the official said.
Chuang also stressed the importance of bolstering domestic resource mobilization among developing member countries to improve their capacity to collect taxes and other revenue to provide better public services and economic support.
Regarding gender equality, Chuang said that Taiwan has been ahead of its peers on the issue and was willing to share its experience with its partners.
Chuang and central bank Deputy Governor Chu Mei-lie (朱美麗), who is Taiwan’s alternate governor to the ADB, are next to attend the 63rd annual governors’ meeting of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) in the Dominican Republic from Thursday to Saturday.
Chuang is to participate in her capacity as a governor at the CABEI, the ministry said.
Taiwan joined the CABEI in 1992 under its official Republic of China name as a non-regional member, with an 11.09 percent stake in the bank, the highest among the body’s seven non-regional members.
RESILIENCE: Deepening bilateral cooperation would extend the peace sustained over the 45 years since the Taiwan Relations Act, Greene said Taiwan-US relations are built on deep economic ties and shared values, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene said yesterday, adding that strengthening supply chain security in critical industries, enhancing societal resilience through cooperation and deepening partnerships are key to ensuring peace and stability for Taiwan in the years ahead. Greene made the remarks at the National Security Youth Forum, organized by National Taiwan University’s National Security and Strategy Studies Institution in Taipei. In his address in Mandarin Chinese, Greene said the Taiwan-US relationship is built on deep economic ties and shared interests, and grows stronger through the enduring friendship between
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,