Poland’s donation of COVID-19 vaccines was sent to help Taiwan gradually reopen to the world, Polish Office in Taipei Acting Head Bartosz Rys said.
The envoy made the remarks in a written interview with the Taipei Times and its sister newspaper, the Chinese-language Liberty Times, late last month.
The Polish government on Sept. 4 announced a donation of 400,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Taiwan, which arrived the following day.
Photo: EPA
While Poland’s announcement came after donation announcements by Lithuania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, Poland is the third-largest donor of COVID-19 vaccines to Taiwan after the US and Japan.
“The donation reflects our solidarity [with recipients] and intention to help those in need. We also wanted to express our gratitude [to Taiwan] for providing us in total 1 million face masks,” Rys said.
“I very much hope our donation will help Taiwan speed up the vaccination rollout. I also believe this will help Taiwan gradually relax COVID-19 curbs and open up to the world again, as more people will be protected,” he said.
“I would like to underline that Poland donated in total over 2 million vaccines to its international partners in a gesture of solidarity, including also Ukraine (650,000 doses), Vietnam (500,000), Uzbekistan (250,000) and Kenia (210,000),” Rys added.
Poland is the first EU country to sign an agreement on legal cooperation in criminal matters with Taiwan, which came into effect on Feb. 23.
“In practice, this was an important step to streamline cooperation in this regard,” Rys said, adding that the agreement enabled the office to transfer a Polish citizen from Taiwan to serve the rest of his sentence in Poland, as he had requested.
Among EU economies, Poland is the least affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, adding that Poland is a great destination for Taiwanese companies wanting to relocate their manufacturing bases in Europe.
Poland has attracted many foreign investors from different industries such as the automotive, electromobility, electronics, information and communications technology, biotechnology, pharmacology and green technology sectors, he said.
“For example, we are the biggest supplier of lithium-ion car batteries or their components in Europe. Poland is also the largest exporter of electric buses in the EU,” he said.
Despite disruptions caused by the pandemic, Polish exports to Taiwan last year rose 39 percent and imports from Taiwan grew 10 percent, he said.
During the ninth bilateral economic consultations in September last year, Poland and Taiwan signed two agreements: one on supporting small and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups, and the other on cooperation between accreditation bodies.
Taiwan-Poland cooperation in science and technology is also booming, the Polish Office in Taipei said, citing as an example National Central University teaming up with Poland’s Nicolaus Copernicus University for scientific missions in the Arctic.
The two countries are also increasing cooperation in space technology. A satellite attitude control system developed by Taiwanese start-up Tensor Tech Co (張量科技) is to be deployed on a cubesat belonging to Polish start-up SatRevolution.
The launch is scheduled for Dec. 4.
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