South Korean Representative to Taiwan Chung Byung-won said he has been taking a more systematic approach to the exchanges between the two sides since taking up his post in December last year.
Chung made the remarks during an interview with the Central News Agency.
The two countries have always had close economic, trade and tourism ties, he said, adding that bilateral exchanges are expected to increase following the inauguration of new South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan and South Korea are each other’s fifth-largest trading partners, with bilateral trade reaching US$50.76 billion last year for annual growth of 41.98 percent, he said, citing government data.
The travel volume between the two countries was 2.5 million people before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, with each side being the other’s third-largest source of international tourists, Chung said.
South Korea and Taiwan are global leaders in the semiconductor industry, the former known for its high-quality memory chips, and the latter for its OEM and ODM products, he said.
South Korea and Taiwan are not only competitors in the global semiconductor industry, but are also close partners with complementary strengths, Chung said.
For instance, semiconductor-related products account for 44 percent of South Korea’s exports to Taiwan and 67 percent of Taiwan’s exports to South Korea, he said, citing data from last year.
Against this backdrop, Chung said that one of his priorities is to create a more systematic approach to supporting the ties between the two sides.
To that end, Seoul and Taipei signed a reciprocal driver’s license agreement in February, with immediate effect, to make driving easier for visitors on each side, he said.
Following the signing of a double taxation agreement in November last year, the two sides are now in talks on a potential financial cooperation pact, he said.
Those efforts are aimed at building systematic and structural support for closer bilateral exchanges on all fronts, he added.
With the expected easing of border controls in the second half of this year, Chung said he is hoping that travel between the two nations will return to pre-pandemic levels.
Chung said his office is also planning to hold a fashion show in Taipei in November, which would highlight traditional Korean clothing known as hanbok.
Next year, on the 30th anniversary of the Korean Mission in Taipei, a cultural week would be organized to celebrate the milestone, he said.
The 58-year-old said he has come to love the mountains of Taiwan, adding that he is planning a four-day climb next month to Yushan (玉山), Taiwan’s highest peak.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the
RSS