Trade volume between Taiwan and Ivory Coast grew 9.1 percent in the first six months of this year compared with the same period last year following the reopening of the Taipei Representative Office in Ivory Coast, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Taiwan severed diplomatic relations with Ivory Coast in 1983, but the Ministry of Economic Affairs operated a Far East Trade Service branch office in the country until January 2017.
After the office was closed due to concerns about business operations, the Taipei Representative Office in France took over the services until November last year, when the representative office in the African nation reopened.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council
Shin Chi-chih (辛繼志) was named Taiwan’s new envoy to Ivory Coast and arrived in the country in late January to prepare for the reopening.
Trade volume between Taiwan and Ivory Coast was close to US$33 million last year, Bureau of Foreign Trade data showed.
Since the office’s reopening, it has been exchanging and cooperating with the public and private sectors of Ivory Coast in the fields of economy and trade, education, vocational training, agriculture and public health, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Anthony Ho (賀忠義) told a news briefing.
The Taiwan External Trade Development Council formed a trade mission to visit Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria from May 28 to June 11, Ho said.
With the assistance of the Ivory Coast office, the mission held a trade fair at the Pullman Hotel in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on June 2 to explore trade opportunities with the country, he said.
Taiwan has fewer offices in Africa than in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the Americas, but offices in Africa provide services to neighboring countries that do not have Taiwanese offices, he said.
The foreign ministry would grasp any opportunity to establish friendly relations and bolster exchanges with other countries, Ho said.
It would continue to gather support for Taiwan as well as seek business opportunities for Taiwanese businesspeople in Africa, he added.
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