Visiting Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego during a meeting with Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) yesterday called for direct flights between her city in Arizona and Taipei, as well as expanded bilateral cooperation.
Gallego is leading Phoenix Councilor Ann O’Brien and other city officials on an Asian trip, during which they are also to visit South Korea and Japan along with Phoenix Vice Mayor Yassamin Ansari.
She met with Chen in 2019 on her last visit to Taiwan when celebrating 40 years of the sister city relationship between Taipei and Phoenix.
Photo courtesy of the Executive Yuan
“Now, we mark 44 years and it is only stronger,” Gallego said.
She thanked Chen for putting in a good word with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), which helped the city successfully recruit the company.
TSMC is investing US$12 billion to build a wafer plant in northern Phoenix that is scheduled to begin mass production next year.
In addition to a great business climate, and reliable power and water supplies, “we believe our people are what helped us convince TSMC to come to Phoenix,” Gallego said.
Phoenix also has great universities and developments in bioengineering, as well as world-leading achievements in tackling climate change, including the uses of advanced building materials and cool pavements, she said.
Taiwan and Phoenix could expand their cooperation on semiconductors to other areas, such as healthcare, biosciences and electric vehicles, she added.
Direct flights between Phoenix and Taipei could further facilitate business exchanges between Taiwan and the US, Gallego said.
“Many companies in Phoenix that are looking to enter Asia believe Taipei and Taiwan are the best locations to do so,” she said.
Taiwan and Arizona share a close relationship in economics and trade, Chen said, adding that Taiwan is Arizona’s ninth-largest export market, while Arizona is a key base for Taiwanese F-16 pilots to receive training from the US Air Force.
The initial agreement under the US-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade, which was signed last month, “provides a level playing field for businesses and creates greater incentives for Taiwanese enterprises to invest in the US,” he said.
The Arizona Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan, which officially opened in March, has already begun to play an important role in deepening collaboration exchanges between the two sides, he added.
Including Arizona, 14 US states and Guam have established offices in Taiwan, which indicates that “Taiwan is a crucial hub for US states in developing access to Asian markets,” Chen said.
Chen praised Gallego as “an outstanding example of the new generation of female political leaders and a great supporter of gender equality,” adding that Taiwan would continue to promote gender equality education and increased female participation in the workplace.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
SECURITY RISK: A university student sent a general alarm signal to THSRC’s control center on April 5, causing four operating trains to temporarily halt services The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday pledged to submit a report on ways to harden the communication security of railway systems after a university student hacked into Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp’s (THSRC) radio communications system and disrupted operations of four high-speed rail trains last month. Investigation by the police and prosecutors found that the university student and radio enthusiast, surnamed Lin (林), first used a software-defined radio (SDR) filter to analyze THSRC signals, downloaded the data to a computer, cracked the parameters and then programmed the codes into his radio devices. Lin then sent a general alarm signal to
RSS