President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday encouraged overseas Taiwanese businesses to return home and invest locally.
She made the remarks during a meeting with a Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce of North America (TCCNA) delegation.
Tsai thanked the organization for voicing support for Taiwan at international events and expanding the nation’s influence, citing as an example the timely donation it made to Turkey after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck in February.
Photo: CNA
The TCCNA also strives to deepen Taiwan’s ties with the US and seeks economic and trade opportunities, such as when it met with US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and US lawmakers in March, she said.
The US-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade has made significant progress during two rounds of negotiations, Tsai said, adding that both sides have agreed to continue discussions.
After finalizing the initiative, hopefully this year, Taiwan hopes to explore the possibility of signing a free-trade agreement with the US, she said.
As Taiwan is the US’ eighth-largest trade partner and the two sides have complementary industrial structures, deepening Taiwan-US relations would certainly benefit people in both countries, she said.
The government’s Invest in Taiwan programs, which run until next year, aim to encourage overseas Taiwanese businesses to return and invest locally, Tsai said.
The programs have stimulated investment of more than NT$2 trillion (US65.2 billion), while multinational corporations such as ASML and Merck have made huge investments in Taiwan in the past few years as they are positive about Taiwan’s development prospects, she said.
Tsai asked the TCCNA to help Taiwan further raise its international visibility and connect with the world.
The delegation later met with Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), who echoed Tsai’s call and encouraged investment from overseas Taiwanese businesses.
Chen acknowledged the organization’s effort to unite overseas Taiwanese businesses and build a solid foundation for non-governmental exchanges between Taiwan and North America.
Despite a difficult international situation involving authoritarian expansion, climate change, disinformation and cybersecurity threats, Taiwan can turn risks into opportunities just as it overcame the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
The focus of the TCCNA this year is to improve economic and trade relations between Taiwan and the US, TCCNA president Tom Wu (吳東昇) said.
The organization is promoting the signing of a Taiwan-US bilateral trade agreement, supporting Taiwan’s participation in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity and calling on the US to eliminate double taxation between the countries, he said.
Taiwanese businesses overseas are an important force in promoting citizen diplomacy through soft power, Wu said.
Young talent in the 35 local chambers across North America are using their advantage in language to integrate the TCCNA’s activities into mainstream society, he added.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to