Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-hsiang (施顏祥) met his Singaporean counterpart yesterday on the sidelines of the APEC forum, with a free-trade agreement high on the agenda.
Shih arrived in Singapore on Monday evening to attend the annual APEC ministerial-level meeting set to open today.
Accompanied by officials from Taiwan’s representative office in Singapore, Shih held bilateral talks with Lim Hng Kiang (林勛強), Singapore’s minister for trade and industry, at Lim’s office around noon.
Shih told reporters he wanted to exchange views with Lim on issues of mutual interest, but did not elaborate on what those issues were.
Sources close to Taiwan’s delegation at APEC said that as progress has been made in Taiwan’s negotiations with China on the signing of a partial free trade agreement (FTA) — the economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) — Shih would explore the feasibility of Taiwan and Singapore starting FTA talks.
The sources said Singapore is concerned about cross-strait ECFA talks.
“Shih will brief the Singaporean minister on progress in cross-strait ECFA talks while getting detailed information about Singapore’s FTA negotiations with China,” said one of the Taiwanese officials in the delegation, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
As Singapore is interested in some of Taiwan’s major infrastructure construction projects, the two ministers are also expected to touch on matters related to this in their talks, the official said.
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