The Legislative Yuan yesterday launched parliamentary friendship associations for countries in Africa, Central and South Americas and the Caribbean, which were initiated by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉).
Taiwan should foster more connections with African countries and many of them have great potential in trade and investment, Chiu said at the inaugural ceremony of the Taiwan-African Countries Parliamentary Friendship Association.
Accompanying President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on her visit to Eswatini in September last year, Chiu said he witnessed the fruitful outcome of cooperation between Taiwan and its African ally.
Photo courtesy of Chiu Chih-wei’s office
There is a lot of room for bilateral cooperation between Taiwan and African countries in the fields of trade, investment, culture, education and science and technology, he said.
He urged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to draw up an updated and more comprehensive version of the Africa Project, which Tsai initiated in 2018.
The Taiwan-African Countries group is to promote parliamentary and people-to-people exchanges between Taiwan and African countries, helping the nation work toward the goal of setting up 10 representative offices in Africa in the next four years, especially in central and north Africa, he said.
Taiwan has six representative offices in five African countries: Eswatini, Nigeria, the Ivory Coast, Somaliland and South Africa, he said, adding that the group aims to set up more offices in African countries to bolster bilateral exchanges and provide Taiwanese businesspeople there with more resources.
He urged the Taiwan External Trade Development Council and the International Cooperation and Development Fund to draw up a cooperation plan with African states to boost Taiwan’s visibility.
At the inaugural ceremony of the Taiwan-Central and South American and Caribbean Countries Parliamentary Friendship Association, Chiu thanked Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in the regions for speaking up for Taiwan at international events and supporting its international participation.
The group is to promote and expand cooperation with countries in the regions in fields such as science and technology, trade, economy and education, he said.
During the Legislative Yuan recess, he plans to lead delegations to diplomatic countries to conduct parliamentary diplomacy.
The group is also to meet with foreign ambassadors and representatives in Taiwan regularly to exchange views on various topics to advance a substantive relationship between the legislative and executive branches, he said.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS