The Czech Republic on Monday became the first European country to host a meeting under the Global Cooperation and Training Framework (GCTF), a Taiwan-US-Japan platform for like-minded partners, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
The event, titled “Global Supply Chains Reset: Strategies for Reducing Vulnerability to Economic Coercion,” focused on “opportunities and challenges for the Czech Republic,” the ministry said in a news release.
It marked the first time a GCTF meeting was held in Europe, as well as the first such event designed for a single country, it said.
The meeting at the Czech Senate was opened by Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil, who led an 89-member delegation to Taiwan last year.
Businesses must rethink their supply chains and not sacrifice long-term goals for short-term gains, Vystrcil was quoted as saying in the ministry’s release.
Taiwan, the US Japan and the Czech Republic share the values of democracy and freedom, so the Czech government should work with the countries to develop more resilient, diverse and competitive industrial supply chains, he said.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) and Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association Representative Hiroyasu Izumi addressed the meeting in recorded speeches, while Representative to the Czech Republic Ke Liang-ruey (柯良叡) and Jennifer Bachus, the charge d’affaires at the US embassy in Prague, addressed the event in person, the ministry said.
Representatives from the private sector shared their views on supply chain restructuring and how to boost competitiveness, while academics addressed restructuring challenges and opportunities, it said.
Speaking by videoconference, Roy Lee (李淳), deputy executive director of the WTO and RTA Center at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, said the Czech Republic’s location in central Europe and strong manufacturing capabilities provide good opportunities for Taipei and Prague to form supply chains for key industries.
The GCTF was established by Taiwan and the US in 2015, with Japan joining the framework in March 2019.
Most of its previous events were in Taiwan, while its first event outside the nation was a workshop on Austronesian languages in Palau in September 2019.
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