American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Brent Christensen on Wednesday cut the ribbon for a new residential building for the institute’s employees, saying that the new facility is an important symbol of Taiwan-US friendship.
The ceremony was also attended by Taipei Commissioner for External Affairs Tom Chou (周台竹), Taiwan Council for US Affairs Chairperson Jenny Yang (楊珍妮) and Jean Group CEO Jesse Lin (林傳捷).
The Tianmei building in Taipei’s Tianmu (天母) area is the “first purpose-built facility in Taiwan to house employees of a foreign office,” the AIT wrote on Facebook yesterday.
Photo: Screen grab from American Institute in Taiwan’s Facebook page
The building “underscores our message of commitment and purpose, but also of US-Taiwan friendship,” Christensen said.
“I always say that it is the people-to-people ties that form the foundation of our friendship, and I look forward to seeing the many ways the Tianmei families help strengthen those ties,” he added.
The AIT spent NT$1.16 billion (US$41.22 million) on the building, as well as more than NT$200 million on two apartments in a building across from its new headquarters in Neihu District (內湖), the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) reported last week.
Having been in Taiwan for 42 years, the US representative office has over the past few years moved from renting to purchasing properties, it reported.
Additional reporting by Hsu Yi-ping
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