A Taiwan-US business delegation has visited Saint Lucia this week to increase private sector investment in the Caribbean nation, marking the first time the two nations jointly embarked on a trade mission to one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
“A US-Taiwan delegation has visited #StLucia to increase private sector investment,” the US embassy in Barbados wrote on its Twitter account on Wednesday.
The Twitter post showed a photograph of Ambassador to Saint Lucia Shen Cheng-tsung (沈正宗) touring a US-owned factory complex there, accompanied by World Bank executive director Erik Bethel, Saint Lucia Governor Nancy Charles and US Department of State official Corey Johnston.
Photo grab from the official Twitter account of the US embassy in Bridgetown
The trip was aimed at helping Taiwan consolidate relations with its allies through the promotion of increased trade and investment, the ministry said in a statement.
Taiwan has been attaching great importance to its relations with diplomatic allies and to its friendly partnership with the US, it said.
The nation will continue to work with the US and other like-minded countries, in a bid to explore commercial opportunities in allied countries and seek win-win situations, it added.
The visit came after Taiwan lost two Pacific allies — the Solomon Islands and Kiribati — in September.
Taiwan now has only 15 diplomatic allies.
The severance of ties prompted the US last month to hold a meeting with representatives from seven of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in an effort to help the country keep its remaining allies around the world.
Among the top issues on the meeting agenda was how to strengthen cooperation between Taiwan and its allies in the Western Hemisphere through a wide range of measures to facilitate infrastructure, trade and investment, as well as how to safeguard democratic values.
The meeting was organized by Washington in conjunction with the joint annual meeting of the World Bank Group and the IMF in Washington.
Additional reporting by Lin Chia-nan
SCANDAL: There are still discussions over whether a ban from being coaches, referees or agents should be imposed on the players, the association said The Chinese Taipei Basketball Association (CTBA), Taiwan’s basketball governing body, on Tuesday said that it has handed lifetime bans to 10 players accused of game-fixing and breaches of betting rules. In a statement on Tuesday, the CTBA said it has revoked the registration of nine former players from the semi-professional Super Basketball League’s (SBL) Yulon Lexgen Dinos and one from the Taiwan Beer Leopards of the professional T1 League. The nine former Dinos players are Ko Min-hao (柯旻豪), Chiu Chung-po (邱忠博), Chen Pin-chuan (陳品銓), Huang Hsuan-min (黃鉉閔), Wu Yu-jen (吳祐任), Chou Wei-chen (周暐宸), Yen Wen-tso (顏聞佐), Lee Chi-en (李其恩), and Senegalese center
It took director Chong Keat Aun (張吉安) nearly a decade to complete Snow in Midsummer (五月雪), a deft chronicle of Malaysia’s May 13 incident told through one woman’s search for her brother and father. Although only his second feature, it led the field at yesterday’s Golden Horse Awards with nine nominations. Chong said it had been a struggle to get people to share their memories of the intercommunal violence following the 1969 national election, known among the country’s ethnic Chinese community as “513.” “My father, for example, would shut the conversation down if my mother or grandma even mentioned the topic,” Chong said
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said that a surge in respiratory illnesses in China has been caused by at least seven types of pathogens, and small children, elderly people and immunocompromised people should temporarily avoid unnecessary visits to China. The recent outbreak of respiratory illnesses in China is mainly in the north and among children, CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said on Monday. Data released by the Chinese National Health Commission on Sunday showed that among children aged one to four, the main pathogens were influenza viruses and rhinoviruses, while among children aged five to 14, the main pathogens
A new poll of Taiwanese voters found the top opposition candidate for president jumping past the ruling party’s hopeful into the lead position ahead of January’s election — the latest twist in a drama-filled race. Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) had an approval rating of 31.9 percent versus 29.2 percent for the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the poll released yesterday by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation showed. The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), ranked third with 23.6 percent, according to the survey conducted
RSS