The New Southbound Policy Office is to begin expanding into the Southeast Asian market with a plan aimed at boosting visits by Southeast Asian tourists to Taiwan through visa-free privileges, the head of the office said.
The office is to coordinate with the relevant authorities to promote the policy initiated by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), New Southbound Policy Office head James Huang (黃志芳) said last week, adding that the first stage would be opening the nation’s doors wider to middle-class tourists from Southeast Asia.
“In the short term, [we] will first promote tourism and visa exemptions,” Huang said.
The plan is similar to what Japan has done over the past few years in offering visitors from Southeast Asian nations, including Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, preferential visa-free treatment, he said.
Taiwan must not block “middle-class tourists who have strong purchasing power and affluent people” from these nations just because it has to handle relations with foreign workers and new immigrants, he said.
Huang, a former minister of foreign affairs, said that Taiwan’s move into the Southeast Asian market has lagged far behind some other nations, including China.
However, Taiwan enjoys competitiveness in the areas of agriculture, aquaculture and information communication, while China emphasizes big infrastructure construction projects, he said.
There is no conflict between Taiwan and China in their efforts to explore that market, he said.
Huang described the policy as a “people-focused” external economic strategy, and expressed hope that Taiwan can establish a partnership with members of the ASEAN and South Asian nations.
He said his office would integrate scholarship programs for government units, private enterprises and public and private schools, to turn the recipients into a “bridge” between Taiwan and ASEAN and South Asian nations ,and have them help enterprises to explore the markets there.
The central tenet of the policy is “turning ASEAN into an extension of Taiwan’s domestic market,” Huang said.
Taiwan first promoted a “go south” policy in the 1990s, which tried to encourage companies to shift their investment to Southeast Asia rather than China, in the hope of leveraging Taiwan’s economic might into political clout.
However, the policy gradually lost steam during former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) administration, especially after the 1997 Asian financial storm.
That policy, Huang has said before, was focused on investment and trade figures, but the New Southbound Policy is centered on nurturing talent and encouraging bilateral exchanges to achieve its goals.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS