New Philippine Representative to Taiwan Gilberto Lauengco has made promoting the welfare of Filipino workers and increasing cooperation in trade and agriculture his top priorities.
“Primarily my main focus is to help the labor attache take care of the 150,000 Filipinos here, both their welfare and their safety,” Lauengco said in an interview on Sunday.
Lauengco, who has served as vice chairman of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) in Taipei since 2016, is to continue in that role. He was appointed as resident representative to Taiwan on Aug. 1, taking over from MECO Chairman Angelito Banayo, who remains MECO chairman, but is to focus on his responsibilities at the MECO headquarters in Manila.
MECO serves as the de facto Philippine embassy in Taiwan due to the absence of formal relations between the two countries.
Beyond the welfare of Filipino workers, Lauengco’s other top goal is to expand trade between the two countries.
“We already have a working trade agreement. We’re trying to expand on that,” he said, adding that he is planning to invite more Taiwanese businesspeople to invest in the Philippines and offer them incentives such as provision of land, simplified investment procedures and a streamlined visa application process.
Agricultural cooperation is another priority.
“I’ve been all around Taiwan, and I’ve seen the depth and the level of technology in agriculture: your machinery, your cold storage technology, your vertical farms, everything,” he said. “So I’m trying to get those technologies to partner with Philippine technologies, so that we can assist the Philippines in so far as our agriculture industry is concerned.”
Lauengco plans to carry out a number of projects when the COVID-19 pandemic eases, including sending Filipino students to Taiwan to learn agriculture skills, and establishing more Taiwanese demonstration farms in the Philippines and agricultural technical missions.
Asked whether MECO has had difficulties maintaining relations with Taiwan given the close ties between Manila and Beijing, Lauengco said that Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has given MECO leeway to handle ties with Taiwan.
However, he said that “there are constraints” that transcend Taiwan and the Philippines, and should be answered from a more global perspective.
“We work with the same constraints as everybody else in the region, but the [Taiwan-Philippine] relationship is there ... friendship, economic, health, those are things that will last even to the next generation,” he said.
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
Taitung County is to launch charter flights to Malaysia at the end of this year, after setting up flights to Vietnam and Thailand, the Taitung County Government said yesterday. The new charter flight services, provided by low-cost carrier Batik Air Malaysia, would be part of five-day tour packages for visits to Taitung County or Malaysia. The Batik Air charter flight, with about 200 seats, would take Malaysian tourists to Taitung on Dec. 30 and then at 12:35pm return to Kuala Lumpur with Taiwanese tourists. Another charter flight would bring the Taiwanese home on Jan. 3 next year, arriving at 5:30pm, before taking the
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
An exhibition celebrating Taiwan and Japan’s comic culture opened on Saturday in Taichung, featuring a section that explores Taiwanese reproductions of Japanese comics from when martial law limited Japanese representation. “A Century of Manga Culture: An Encounter of Taiwan and Japan’s Youth” held its Taiwan opening ceremony at Taichung’s National Taiwan Museum of Comics after an initial one-month run in Japan’s Kyoto International Manga Museum between May 24 and June 24. Much like the Kyoto exhibition, the show mainly celebrates the comic connection between Taiwan and Japan through late Taiwanese comic book
RSS