As Taiwan's prepares to take its WHO bid to the organization's annual meeting in May, the government and the private sector are continuing to promote the cause, ambassador-at-large Wu Yung-tung (
Wu, who is also president of the Taiwan Medical Association, said the medical community will continue to push for Taiwan's WHO bid.
"At least we've decided to just do it despite the frustration," Wu said.
The association decided last week that it would send a group to Geneva in May for the annual meeting of World Health Assembly (WHA), the WHO's top decision-making body, Wu said.
Wu said the local medical community felt obliged to speak up for the bid from the position of the non-governmental sector.
The Foundation of Medical Professionals Alliance in Taiwan is also slated to join the effort in Geneva, the foundation office director Lin Shih-chia (
The two medical associations are expected to travel to Japan and South Korea around the end of this month to lobby, a source said on condition of anonymity.
The upcoming work in Seoul and Tokyo is part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' effort to map out a clear division of labor among various private groups devoted to the nation's WHO bid, the source said.
Describing the promotion of the bid as "guerrilla warfare" given obstruction from Beijing, Lin said it is imperative for the private sector to maintain a low-key lobbying effort.
On the side of the government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has yet to present its long-awaited lobbying paper to the press.
"We've had to revise it at least 12 times," said an official involved in the process who declined to be named.
The ministry hoped to further its chances this year by hiring international lawyers to polish the official bid document.
Ministry spokesman Richard Shih (石瑞琦) urged Beijing yesterday to drop its obstruction to Taipei's bid, while calling on the international community to support Taiwan.
Shih said Taiwan is willing and able to act as a responsible player in the international community.
Shih reiterated the government's gratitude for the US House of Representatives having given unanimous approval to legislation that would pressure the US administration to seek a way to secure an observer status for Taipei at the May meeting of the WHA.
The bill, which was approved 414 to zero, now goes to the Senate, where it is expected to get speedy approval.
The US and Japan last May voiced support for Taiwan's application as a "health entity" for observer status at the WHA. Spain and France, during the WHA steering committee's closed-door meeting last May, spoke against putting Taiwan's case on the WHA agenda.
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