France is focusing on enhancing economic cooperation with Taiwan, particularly in the areas of artificial intelligence (AI) and energy, French Office in Taipei Director Franck Paris said on Friday evening.
Cooperation with Taiwan in AI and energy would be a “priority” as France seeks to strengthen bilateral economic ties, Paris said at a Bastille Day celebration event in Taipei.
The French office is actively working to facilitate exchanges between start-ups and universities from the two sides, Paris said, without going into detail.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
“We stand alongside Taiwan to achieve [its] ambition to become the leading AI island,” he said, alluding to President William Lai’s (賴清德) policy pledge to support the development of the AI industry in Taiwan.
Friday’s celebration, heavily focused on the upcoming Paris Olympics, was attended by many government officials, including Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) and National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮).
In his remarks, Lin lauded the “strong parliamentary support for Taiwan” in France, adding that the number of members in the French Senate’s Taiwan Friendship Group has increased from about 20 in July 2018 to 63.
The minister added that he looks forward to further collaborations between the two sides on semiconductors, renewable energy and AI under a scientific cooperation deal, referring to the Science and Technology Cooperation Convention signed between the two nations last November.
The French Office in Taipei represents France’s interests in Taiwan in the absence of official diplomatic ties.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
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 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
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
RSS