Lawmakers launched the Taiwan-Canada Inter-Parliamentary Amity Association at the legislature yesterday to promote closer ties and expand bilateral trade with Canada.
A Canadian cross-party delegation is scheduled to arrive tomorrow for a week-long visit.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) thanked the Canadian government for voicing support for Taiwan’s participation in international organizations, including the International Civil Aviation Organization and the World Health Assembly.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Canadian Trade Office in Taipei (CTOT) Director of General Affairs Martin Laflamme addressed an audience at the legislature by discussing Canada’s long friendship and history of cultural exchanges with Taiwan, starting with the missionary work of George Leslie Mackay from 1871 until his death in 1901.
Since then, the close relations have fostered many generations of Taiwanese to settle in Canada, Laflamme said.
He added that Canada and Taiwan also share many values, including human rights, democracy, freedom, inclusiveness and diversity.
A number of DPP lawmakers attended the event, along with Legislative Yuan Secretary-General Lin Jih-jia (林志嘉), Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Yui (俞大?) and Overseas Community Affairs Council Deputy Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青).
Chen is head of the amity Association, with Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫?) appointed honorary chairman, and several DPP legislators acting in deputy chair roles, including Mark Ho (何志偉), Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) and Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應).
The association comprises 51 lawmakers from across the party spectrum, with more being recruited, Chen said.
Also at the event, Chung inaugurated the Canada, Malaysia, and Taiwan Inter-Country Economic and Trade Promotion Association, comprising lawmakers, government officials and members of the business community.
Chung said he visited Canada this summer before heading to Malaysia to meet with local government officials, adding that he met with members of Taiwanese communities in both countries.
Taiwan has robust room for trade growth with Canada and Malaysia, with both countries being members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and Taiwan having bolstered ties with Malaysia through New Southbound Policy programs, Chung said.
“We hope Canada and Malaysia can help in Taiwan’s effort to join the CPTPP,” Chung said, adding that Taiwan is well situated between the northern and tropical nations.
The five members of the Canadian delegation scheduled to arrive tomorrow include members of parliament Judy Sgro, chair of the Canada-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group, Angelo Iacono, Chris Lewis, Richard Martel and Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay.
CTOT officials presented a video greeting from Sgro, along with friendship messages by Canadian Senator Michael MacDonald and Canadian Member of Parliament Michael Chong (莊文浩).
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS