Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) said more Asian nations will be inclined to forge trade pacts with Taiwan if it secures such a deal with his city-state first, local media said yesterday.
Lee, in an interview with the Chinese-language China Times, said the two sides hope to sort out details for the planned deal within “the next few months.”
Taiwan and Singapore announced in July that they would hold talks later this year on a trade agreement, the first such negotiations since Taipei sealed a major trade deal with China.
“Our selling point is that if [Taiwan] has cooperation with Singapore, other countries will ponder hard: ‘If Singapore is doing this, are we going to lag behind if we are not following?’” he said.
Lee said Singapore, a leading member of ASEAN, was ahead of other nations in the bloc in signing trade deals with major economies such as the US and Japan.
However, the pact issue was still “sensitive” for Taiwan despite its warming ties with China, he said.
Taiwan “has to ensure that cross-strait ties are not affected when it walks out [onto the international stage]. I believe Taiwan will carefully consider this factor,” Lee said, adding that Beijing is keeping an eye on the matter.
Taiwan has free-trade agreements with Panama, Guatemala and Nicaragua and has been pushing to forge tie-ups with other major trading partners. Such talks were bogged down, largely due to pressure from Beijing.
Singapore is Taiwan’s sixth-largest trading partner.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
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