The next representative to Sweden, Vincent Yao (姚金祥), yesterday said he would boost bilateral trade relations as well as collaborations with Europe and the US over 5G network industry when he takes up his new post this month.
Yao has been director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of North American Affairs since December 2018.
Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Boston Director-General Douglas Hsu (徐佑典) is to replace Yao at the department.
Photo: CNA
Yao told a news briefing that his work over the past two decades had mostly focused on North American affairs.
His new post would be his first assignment in Europe and he looks forward to new challenges, Yao said.
While imports and exports from Sweden are fairy balanced, the nation has been unable to reciprocate Sweden’s enthusiasm for investment in Taiwan, he said.
Bilateral trade last year totaled nearly US$1.31 billion, and Taiwan was Sweden’s sixth-largest Asian trading partner, Yao said, citing statistics from the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Bureau of Foreign Trade.
Bilateral trade has been growing year on year since 2015, Yao said.
Swedish support, such as backing the nation’s bid to participate in the World Health Assembly as an observer, has been growing and is a solid foundation for warm bilateral relations, he said.
Stockholm-based IT giant Ericsson is collaborating with Taiwan over 5G,while Chunghwa Telecom used technology developed by Ericsson as it introduced commercial 5G networks on June 30, he said.
The ties could be expanded to form a 5G collaboration between Taiwan, the US and Europe, he said.
In related news, the ministry announced some diplomatic personnel changes.
Former grand justice Lo Chang-fa (羅昌發) has been appointed as representative to the WTO, it said.
Former Straits Exchange Foundation chairwoman Katharine Chang (張小月) is to replace Vanessa Shih (史亞平) as representative to Austria, while Shih is to chair the foreign ministry’s Institute of Diplomacy and International Affairs, the foreign ministry said.
The ministry has faced criticism, as the nation’s representative to the WTO, one of the few international bodies in which Taiwan has official membership, has been vacant since September last year.
Lo’s familiarity with international economic law, WTO legal affairs and international trade law means he is more than qualified for the position, the foreign ministry said.
In 2008, Lo was appointed as a member of the Permanent Group of Experts at the WTO’s Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures and in 2006 was a panelist on the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body, it said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching