The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) today said that it has allocated a budget of NT$156 million (US$5.07 million) for the purchase of a property to house its representative office in Boston.
Currently, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Boston is located in a rented building at 99 Summer Street.
In MOFA’s budget proposal for next fiscal year, it has allocated NT$156 million to buy a property at an undisclosed location in the Massachusetts state capital, pending approval of the budget by the Cabinet and legislature.
Photo: Yang Cheng-yu, Taipei Times
Department of General Affairs Director-General Chen Jin-ling (陳錦玲) told reporters today that in addition to Boston, the ministry plans to purchase properties in Houston and Denver to house its US representative offices.
MOFA is also looking to buy a property in Sydney, Australia, to house its representative office there, but has not yet identified a location, Chen told a MOFA news briefing.
The goal is to save taxpayers money that is spent on renting overseas offices, said Chen, whose department is responsible for buying or leasing space for such offices.
When MOFA owns the property in which its overseas offices are housed, it allows for the accommodation of other government bodies such as the Overseas Community Affairs Council, thus providing more convenient one-stop services to Taiwanese abroad, Chen said.
Currently, the ministry has 111 overseas offices, 19 of which are housed in properties owned by the government.
Since 2002, the ministry has been trying to buy properties for its overseas offices to save on rent.
In recent years, it has bought properties in Italy and in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
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