President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday lauded the signing of an economic pact with Japan on Thursday and said he expected Taiwanese and Japanese companies to cooperate in efforts to develop their China market segments through the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA).
Taipei and Tokyo signed an investment pact on Thursday following more than 12 months of negotiations. The arrangement is expected to take effect by the end of the year, pending legislative approval.
“[The pact] is the first major and comprehensive investment agreement signed between Taiwan and Japan since the two countries severed diplomatic ties in 1972. It will be very important for both the economy and for investment,” Ma said yesterday at a meeting with Japan Interchange Association Chairman Mitsuo Ohashi at the Presidential Office.
Ohashi arrived in Taipei on Thursday to sign the investment pact with Association of East Asian Relations Chairman Peng Run-tsu (彭榮次).
Ma described the pact as a major step forward for Taiwan’s participation in regional economic integration following the signing of the ECFA with China last year, saying he expected companies to use the ECFA to tap into the China market.
Thanks to the ECFA, Ma said, Taiwan and China have developed closer economic ties and trade relations, which prompted Japan to sign the arrangement with Taiwan as it saw more business opportunities.
The government would continue its efforts to sign a free-trade agreement with Japan and Singapore, among other Asian countries, he said.
The Ma administration’s plan to sign an open-skies agreement with Japan has been delayed because negotiations are still ongoing.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
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