Taiwan is pushing for a free trade agreement (FTA) with Malaysia in an attempt to further prop up substantive ties between the two countries, the nation's representative to Malaysia was quoted by the Malaysian National News Agency (MNNA) as saying yesterday.
Wu Wen-ya (吳文雅), head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Malaysia, was quoted by MNNA as saying that two-way trade between Taiwan and Malaysia totaled US$6.5 billion last year, marking an increase of 22 percent over the year-earlier level.
Taiwanese investments in Malaysia over the years have exceeded US$9.5 billion, making Taiwan the third-largest source of foreign capital, second only to the US and Japan, Wu told the MNNA.
In addition, Wu said, the number of Malaysian students seeking to pursue advanced studies in Taiwan has reached 36,000, making the Malaysians the largest foreign student group in Taiwan. Currently, about 3,000 Taiwan students are studying in Malaysia and about 1,200 Malaysians seek to go to Taiwan to study every year.
Meanwhile, Chou Mei-fen (周美芬), a Malaysian vice minister of women, family and community development who studied in Taiwan, said she will push for closer cooperation between the ministry and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in efforts to allow the Malaysian government to recognize the academic degrees conferred to Malaysian students by institutes from Taiwan.
According to Chou, following the Malaysian government's recognition of degrees from six Taiwan medical schools for Malaysian graduates, the Malaysian Ministry of Health announced recently that Malaysian graduates from the Department of Pharmaceutics in three Taiwan universities can become pharmacists in Malaysia immediately after they return to Malaysia.
A small number of Taiwanese this year lost their citizenship rights after traveling in China and obtaining a one-time Chinese passport to cross the border into Russia, a source said today. The people signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of neighboring Russia with companies claiming they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, the source said on condition of anonymity. The travelers were actually issued one-time-use Chinese passports, they said. Taiwanese are prohibited from holding a Chinese passport or household registration. If found to have a Chinese ID, they may lose their resident status under Article 9-1
PROCEDURE: Although there is already a cross-strait agreement in place for the extradition of criminals, ample notice is meant to be given to the other side first Ten Taiwanese who were involved in fraud-related crimes in China were extradited back to Taiwan via Kinmen County on Wednesday, four of whom are convicted fraudsters in Taiwan. The 10 people arrived via a ferry operating between Xiamen and Kinmen, also known as the “small three links.” The Kinmen County Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said that four of the 10 extradited people were convicted in Taiwan for committing fraud and contravening the Money Laundering Control Act (洗錢防制法), and were on the wanted list. They were immediately arrested upon arrival and sent to Kinmen Prison to serve their sentences following brief questioning, the office said.
PROBLEMATIC APP: Citing more than 1,000 fraud cases, the government is taking the app down for a year, but opposition voices are calling it censorship Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday decried a government plan to suspend access to Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu (小紅書) for one year as censorship, while the Presidential Office backed the plan. The Ministry of the Interior on Thursday cited security risks and accusations that the Instagram-like app, known as Rednote in English, had figured in more than 1,700 fraud cases since last year. The company, which has about 3 million users in Taiwan, has not yet responded to requests for comment. “Many people online are already asking ‘How to climb over the firewall to access Xiaohongshu,’” Cheng posted on
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
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