Taiwan and Canada signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to promote cooperation on health affairs and boost the efficiency of joint programs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Representative to Canada Harry Tseng (曾厚仁) and Canadian Trade Office in Taipei Executive Director Jim Nickel signed the MOU on Health Cooperation between Taiwan and Canada via videoconference on Tuesday, the ministry said in a statement.
With the MOU, the two sides can facilitate cooperation and enhance resilience in response to public health incidents, North American Affairs Department Director-General Douglas Hsu (徐佑典) told a news conference yesterday.
Photo courtesy of the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei
It is the first time that the two countries have established systematic cooperation in the field of public health, he said, adding that it is the result of cross-departmental efforts from both sides.
The MOU also demonstrated that Taiwan and Canada are taking concrete steps to bolster their partnership, he said.
Taiwan is confident in its ability to continue to make contributions to the world in the field of public health, he said.
Taiwan is looking forward to deepening cooperation with Canadian agencies to enhance the health and well-being of Taiwanese and Canadians, and the two countries’ common interests, he said.
Taiwan’s “soft power and warm power” continue to attract like-minded partners around the world to seek deeper and wider cooperation with the nation on not only public health, but also economy and trade, he said.
Hsu cited the example of British Columbia’s (BC) plan to establish a Trade and Investment Representative office in Taiwan to increase export and investment opportunities in the country.
The Canadian province announced the plan on Friday last week, identifying Taiwan as one of the “valuable new markets that BC will focus on for export growth,” along with Mexico and Vietnam.
The office “will be created to support BC businesses with better access to the market” as part of its new trade diversification strategy, the British Columbia Government said.
The priority cooperation fields include agricultural products, clean energy and technology, forestry, manufacturing, the information and communications industry, and biotechnology, Hsu said.
The announcement came after similar plans were implemented by Arizona and West Virginia, which opened representative offices in Taiwan in March and last month respectively, he said.
The US and Canada are adding resources to their programs in Taiwan, which proves that Taiwan has a good economic and trade environment, plays an important role in the global supply chain and is internationally competitive, he said.
The ministry welcomes Canadian provinces and US states seeking to set up offices in Taiwan, and encourages North American businesses to increase their investment in the nation, he 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
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
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central