Canada is working to strengthen its connections with Taiwan in the innovation sector this year and next, Canadian Trade Office in Taipei Executive Director Jordan Reeves said on Tuesday.
“In terms of our plans for this office for this year and into 2021, number one is to launch our Year of Canadian-Taiwanese Innovators and to do everything we can with the existing tools we have to virtually make those connections between business and companies,” Reeves said in an interview with the Central News Agency ahead of Canada Day yesterday.
A launch event is scheduled for September in Tainan, home to both the Southern Taiwan Science Park and National Cheng Kung University, which has sister-school relationships with six Canadian universities, he said.
Photo: CNA
During an annual bilateral economic consultation at the end of last year in Canada, the idea was raised of helping companies from the two nations recognize the value each side has to offer, Reeves said.
Canadian companies have usually focused more on China’s market, while Taiwanese firms have looked to the US market for the past several decades, he said.
The two sides have now agreed to bring together Taiwan’s hardware sector and Canada’s software sector in an effort to seek major benefits for companies from both countries, since they complement each other as Taiwan is known for its hardware development while Canada is good in artificial intelligence and Internet of Things solutions, he said.
Although several projects and delegations were postponed or canceled due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei has gone ahead virtually with as many as possible, Reeves said.
The office has facilitated virtual meetings between 24 Canadian technology firms and 120 Taiwanese companies, resulting in more than 65 follow-up meetings, he said.
Virtual workshops have been held between Canada’s National Research Council and Taiwan’s National Center for High Performance Computing and Academia Sinica, he said.
Taiwan is one of the five sites outside North America where Ottawa has established a Canadian Technology Accelerator (CTA), with the others in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Delhi, Reeves said.
The CTA is the largest commercial project in Taiwan funded by Global Affairs Canada and seeks to facilitate cooperation between tech companies from the two nations, he said.
Canada supports Taiwan’s participation in international organizations and would continue to do so, he said.
“Many global issues do not respect political boundaries, issues such as COVID-19, climate change and aviation safety, and these all require a cooperative and inclusive approach for the greater global good,” he said. “I can tell you that Canada will continue to support Taiwan’s participation at the WHA [World Health Assembly] at the next scheduled meeting in November.”
He also hinted that Ottawa supports Taiwan’s joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS