The speaker of the Honduran Congress, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, said yesterday that he hopes to learn from Taiwan's experience to help his country and win his nation's presidential election in the near future.
"Taiwan and Honduras have a lot of things in common. However, there is a long distance in terms of development ... I really hope to take advantage of Taiwan's experience, especially its amazing economic growth, to help Honduras and its people," he said.
Sosa made the remarks at a press conference called by the Embassy of the Republic of Honduras at the Grand Hotel in Taipei yesterday. Sosa was accompanied by his wife and two other representatives from Honduras' Congress.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Sosa said that the Taiwanese people's hard-working attitude had made a deep impression on him, and he thought this could be a good model for his country.
"I will bring Taiwan's experience back to Honduras to help my fellow Honduras people there," he said.
Asked whether Honduras will turn away from Taiwan if it faces diplomatic pressure from China, Sosa affirmed the ties between the two countries and said that Honduras has no interest in making friends with China.
`long-term' ties
"The relationship between Taiwan and Honduras is a long-term relationship. Even though we do business with the Chinese, it has nothing to do with our friendship with Taiwan," Sosa said. "Honduras will not establish diplomatic relationship with China."
Sosa welcomed Taiwanese investors to Honduras, and noted that Cortes Harbor, the biggest harbor in Central America, is one of the six harbors in the world to enjoy tax-free status for importing products into the US.
Reciprocity
Asked what Honduras could do for Taiwan, Sosa gave an indirect response.
"I am very impressed by what Taiwan and its people did within the approximately 60 years after the government relocated from China," he said. "We [our two countries] started from similar situations, but today there is a great difference between us, while the national income per capita is US$14,000 in Taiwan but only US$948 in Honduras."
After the press conference, however, a senior Taiwanese diplomat to Honduras, Eduardo Chen (
"He [Sosa] is able to speak out and support Taiwan regarding all the issues that concern Taiwan's future participation in international organizations," Chen said.
Sosa said that maintaining public order will be his priority if he becomes president of Honduras.
Investment
"A safe environment will bring more foreign investors. More foreign investors mean more job opportunities, more foreign tourists and the improvement of our economic growth," Sosa said.
According to Sosa, 64 percent of Hondurans are poor and the country suffers from a high crime rate.
Sosa said that he visited the Taipei City Police Department and was surprised to learn that police officers in Taiwan enjoy bonuses for dangerous missions.
"The police and military personnel in Honduras do not enjoy fat paychecks and that is also one of the most serious problems that we have to fix," he said.
This is Sosa's second visit to Taipei. He previously visited Taiwan in December, 2002.
Sosa is head of Honduras' National Party and has been the speaker since 2002. He has won the support of current President Ricardio Maduro Joest to run for the presidency.
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
Weather conditions across Taiwan are expected to remain stable today, but cloudy to rainy skies are expected from tomorrow onward due to increasing moisture in the atmosphere, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). Daytime highs today are expected to hit 25-27°C in western Taiwan and 22-24°C in the eastern counties of Yilan, Hualien, and Taitung, data on the CWA website indicated. After sunset, temperatures could drop to 16-17°C in most parts of Taiwan. For tomorrow, precipitation is likely in northern Taiwan as a cloud system moves in from China. Daytime temperatures are expected to hover around 25°C, the CWA said. Starting Monday, areas
A Taiwanese software developer has created a generative artificial intelligence (AI) model to help people use AI without exposing sensitive data, project head Huang Chung-hsiao (黃崇校) said yesterday. Huang, a 55-year-old coder leading a US-based team, said that concerns over data privacy and security in popular generative AIs such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek motivated him to develop a personal AI assistant named “Mei.” One of the biggest security flaws with cloud-based algorithms is that users are required to hand over personal information to access the service, giving developers the opportunity to mine user data, he said. For this reason, many government agencies and
Taiwan has recorded its first fatal case of Coxsackie B5 enterovirus in 10 years after a one-year-old boy from southern Taiwan died from complications early last month, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. CDC spokesman Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞) told a news conference that the child initially developed a fever and respiratory symptoms before experiencing seizures and loss of consciousness. The boy was diagnosed with acute encephalitis and admitted to intensive care, but his condition deteriorated rapidly, and he passed away on the sixth day of illness, Lo said. This also marks Taiwan’s third enterovirus-related death this year and the first severe
RSS