The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue its plan to issue the new version of the ROC passport -- with "Issued in Taiwan" printed in Roman script on the cover -- despite the recent passage of a controversial resolution in the legislature, the ministry's spokesperson said yesterday.
The resolution recommended that the word "Taiwan" should be printed -- in Roman script -- above the word "Pass-port" on the cover of the new passport.
The ministry's spokesperson, Katharine Chang (張小月), said the resolution sailed through the Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Committee last week, but it was non-binding in legal terms.
Chang said the ministry won't change its original plan to issue the new version of the passport by October or November of this year.
The ministry announced in January that "Issued in Taiwan" would be printed at the bottom of the nation's passport covers, starting later this year.
But the ministry will take into consideration the recommendations stipulated by the non-binding resolution, Chang added.
Chang also said that some Taiwanese nationals have in the past filed complaints about the inconvenience of being mistaken for citizens of China while traveling overseas with their ROC passports.
The decision to add "Issued in Taiwan" on the passport covers, was taken in order to highlight the fact that the ROC passport holders were from Taiwan instead of China, Chang added.
Meanwhile, a group of gov-ernors from Paraguay -- led by Victor Hugo Paniagua Fretes, Governor of the Province of Amambay -- arrived in Taipei yesterday for a five-day visit, according to a foreign ministry press release.
During the visit the delegation will meet with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Lan Chih-min (藍智民) and Deputy Director General of the Government Information Office Frederic Chang (張平男), the press release said.
The group will also visit the Council of Agriculture, the International Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Econo-mic Affairs, as well as some cultural and economic establishments in Taiwan.
The delegation is scheduled to depart from Taipei on June 8, the press-release said.
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