The first meeting of a joint committee between Taiwan and Myanmar is to be held in Yangon next month, the first platform for Taiwanese businesspeople to explore trade and investment opportunities in the resource-rich nation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday.
Department of Economic and Trade Affairs Director-General John Lai (賴建中) said Taiwan has established nonofficial communication channels with Myanmar after the country began opening itself up to the world in 2011.
The visit to Myanmar by a business delegation led by Wang Chung-yu (王鍾渝), chairman of the Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association, a nonprofit group supported the government, earlier this year laid the foundation for non--governmental exchanges, Lai said.
During the visit, the association signed a bilateral cooperative agreement with the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Myanmar’s largest nonprofit business federation, Lai said.
Timed to coincide with the launch of the joint committee on Nov. 4, the association will organize a delegation composed of businesspeople in steel, cement and medical devices industries to explore business opportunities in Myanmar, Lai said.
Lai added that the government would also aim to help Myanmar develop through investments in its major infrastructure projects.
Taiwan will launch a cooperation program on rice production with Myanmar, International Cooperation and Development Fund Secretary-General Tao Wen-lung (陶文隆) told the news briefing.
The fund has played a leading role in agricultural technology development through its many agricultural missions worldwide, Tao said.
“Although the growth of rice yield has been highly uneven in Myanmar, it has a large potential to produce more rice. We will work with Myanmar to develop rice varieties that can boost its food supplies under its climate conditions,” Tao said.
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Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is
NEW DESTINATIONS: Marketing campaigns to attract foreign travelers have to change from the usual promotions about Alishan and Taroko Gorge, the transport minister said The number of international tourists visiting Taiwan is estimated to top 8 million by the end of this year, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) said yesterday, adding that the ministry has not changed its goal of attracting 10 million foreign travelers this year. Chen made the remarks at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee to brief lawmakers about the ministry’s plan to boost foreign visitor arrivals. Last month, Chen told the committee that the nation might attract only 7.5 million tourists from overseas this year and that when the ministry sets next year’s goal, it would not include