Suzanne Lawrence, a special adviser for children’s issues at the US Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, is in Taipei to attend the first Taiwan-US meeting on issues related to child protection, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
The American Institute in Taiwan and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US last month signed a memorandum of understanding on Cooperation on International Parental Child Abduction and appointed representatives from the bureau and the Ministry of Health and Welfare to form a committee to tackle cross-border parenting cases, the foreign ministry said.
During her three-day visit, which began on Wednesday, Lawrence visited government agencies and child welfare groups, it said.
Photo courtesy of the American Institute in Taiwan
Lawrence and Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) are to hold a news conference after today’s meeting.
Separately, the foreign affairs ministry has invited a Japanese delegation representing start-ups and Internet-related businesses to visit from today to Tuesday, Department of International Cooperation and Economic Affairs Director-General Phoebe Yeh (葉非比) said.
The 16-person delegation is to visit Computex Taipei and start-up incubators, such as the Social Innovation Lab, the Taiwan Tech Arena, the Start-up Terrace and the Taiwan Startup Stadium, Yeh said.
On June 14 and 15, the foreign ministry is to take foreign representatives to visit agricultural technology operations in Taipei, including automated mushroom cultivation, moth orchid variety improvement and chicken farming, she said.
It is one of the two tours for foreign representatives every year that the foreign ministry organizes to showcase key Taiwanese businesses, she said.
To mitigate the effect of the US-China trade dispute on local businesses, the foreign affairs ministry has boosted efforts to explore markets in Africa and Latin America, she said.
It has set up a group to inspect commercial opportunities in southern Africa and identified several areas for collaboration, including agriculture, production of organic fertilizers, vehicle components and other export trades, she said.
It would also continue market evaluations in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Saint Kitts and Nevis that began last year, Yeh said.
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
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