The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday expressed the nation’s condolences to the family of Hugues Mignot, a naturalized Taiwanese citizen who was a former director of the Belgium Office Taipei before serving as the first director of the Luxembourg Trade and Investment Office in Taiwan.
Mignot passed away in Taipei on Thursday at the age of 80, the ministry said.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Harry Tseng (曾厚仁) reached out to Mignot’s widow to express the nation’s condolences, and let his family know that his contributions to diplomacy are highly respected, it said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Mignot, who was fluent in Chinese, served as Belgium’s top representative to Taiwan from 1986 to 2006, it added.
Mignot built solid friendships, and was instrumental in Taiwan developing relationships with Belgium and the EU. In 1987, he was the first to propose setting up a European Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan.
In 2002, he lobbied for a European Economic and Trade Office in Taipei, which was opened in March 2003. In October 2004, his efforts led to the signing of the Taiwan-Belgium Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement.
In 2006, Mignot retired, married a Taiwanese woman and was conferred the Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon by then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
In 2009, Luxembourg opened a trade and investment office in Taiwan, and Mignot left retirement to head it, stepping down in 2016.
In December 2019, he became a naturalized Taiwanese citizen.
A Keelung high school on Saturday night apologized for using a picture containing a Chinese flag on the cover of the senior yearbook, adding that it has recalled the books and pledged to provide students new ones before graduation on Thursday. Of 309 Affiliated Keelung Maritime Senior High School of National Taiwan Ocean University graduates, 248 had purchased the yearbook. Some students said that the printer committed an outrageous error in including the picture, while others said that nobody would notice such a small flag on the cover. Other students said that they cared more about the photographs of classmates and what was
GOING INTERNATIONAL: Rakuten Girls squad leader Ula Shen said she was surprised that baseball fans outside of Taiwan not only knew of them, but also knew their names Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Oakland Athletics on Saturday hosted its first Taiwanese Heritage Day event at the Oakland Coliseum with a performance by Taiwanese cheerleading squad the Rakuten Girls and a video message from Vice President William Lai (賴清德). The Rakuten Girls, who are the cheerleaders for the CPBL’s Rakuten Monkeys, performed in front of a crowd of more than 2,000 people, followed by a prerecorded address by Lai about Taiwan’s baseball culture and democratic spirit. Taiwanese pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸), who was signed by the Athletics earlier this year, was also present. Mizuki Lin (林襄), considered a “baseball cheerleading goddess” by Taiwanese
A 14-legged giant isopod is the highlight of a new dish at a ramen restaurant in Taipei and it has people lining up — both for pictures and for a bite from this bowl of noodles. Since “The Ramen Boy” launched the limited-edition noodle bowl on Monday last week, declaring in a social media post that it had “finally got this dream ingredient,” more than 100 people have joined a waiting list to dine at the restaurant. “It is so attractive because of its appearance — it looks very cute,” said the 37-year-old owner of the restaurant, who wanted to be
EVA Airways was ranked the eighth-best airline in the world for this year, the only Taiwanese carrier to make it into the top 25 Airline Excellence Awards this year, aviation reviews Web site AirlineRatings.com said on Wednesday. AirlineRatings.com has a seven-star rating system to evaluate more than 360 airlines around the world every year, EVA Airways said in a statement on Thursday. “We are delighted that efforts by the entire EVA staff have been recognized by Airline Ratings,” EVA Airways president Clay Sun (孫嘉明) said in the release. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company identified and adopted services and procedures that enhance and
RSS