A NT$10 billion (US$333 million) green growth fund would be invested in emerging net zero and sustainability-focused industries to drive the development of the nation’s green economy, President William Lai (賴清德) said at the Asia Green Growth Forum in Taipei yesterday.
Lai attended the forum’s opening ceremony to officially launch the Green Growth Alliance alongside Cabinet ministers and industry representatives. He also unveiled plaques for the Taiwan Green Growth Fund and National Tsing Hua University’s (NTHU) College of Sustainability.
The forum was organized by the Ministry of Environment and the National Development Council (NDC), with Japanese green transition experts invited to exchange views and experience with local green sector representatives.
Photo: CNA
In his address, Lai said the establishment of the alliance, the NT$10 billion fund and NTHU’s College of Sustainability demonstrates the government’s commitment to accelerating green development by integrating industrial support, creating funding momentum and cultivating green talent.
The alliance is a public-private cooperation platform comprising government agencies and 17 companies with strong green growth potential, aiming to strengthen local carbon reduction initiatives, he said.
The green growth fund would also be invested to support the development of a domestic green supply chain and contribute to talent training in the sustainability sector.
NTHU’s College of Sustainability, the first of its kind in Taiwan to have sustainability as its core value, would work closely with the government to foster innovation in green technology through industry-academic collaboration, he said.
“Green growth and net zero transition by 2050 are core strategies of Taiwan’s national development,” Lai said, adding that the Presidential Office’s National Climate Change Committee has, within the past year, introduced Taiwan’s Comprehensive Carbon Reduction Action Plan and updated its net zero goals.
“Taiwan officially entered the era of carbon pricing this year, a move that not only showed Taiwan’s recognition of environmental costs, but also aligned the local economy with the international carbon market,” he said.
Minister of Environment Peng Chi-ming (彭啟明) said the ministry secured the NT$10 billion fund from the NDC and would invest it in local green businesses through a venture capital model to build a green supply chain and circular economy in Taiwan over the next decade.
NTHU president John Kao (高為元) said the sustainability college would be dedicated to addressing sustainable development challenges through interdisciplinary approaches and technological innovation.
The college would also train professionals in key fields such as carbon trading and green finance, he added.
Regarding the Taiwan-Japan net zero strategic partnership, Peng said that Taiwan would deepen its understanding of Japan’s Green Transformation policy and joint credit mechanism to explore how private investment could be leveraged to support net-zero goals.
Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association Chief Representative Kazuyuki Katayama in his remarks thanked Peng and other officials for organizing the forum.
The association and the Taiwan-Japan Relations Association since 2019 have maintained a memorandum of understanding on environmental protection, facilitating bilateral cooperation on issues such as climate change, he said.
“We hope that Japan-Taiwan cooperation would lead the green growth in Asia to contribute to sustainable developments regionally and globally,” he said.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
RSS