President Tsai Ing-wen said Aug. 3 that Taiwan and the U.K. should prioritize concluding a free trade or bilateral investment agreement so as to create more win-win opportunities and inject fresh impetus into the economies of both sides.
Over the past year, Taiwan and the U.K. have laid the foundation for such cooperation through increasingly frequent exchanges by high-level officials and lawmakers in areas like industrial development and municipal governance, Tsai said. It is important to maintain this momentum and keep relations going from strength to strength, she added.
Tsai made the remarks while receiving an 11-member delegation from the British-Taiwanese All-Party Parliamentary Group at the Office of the President in Taipei City. Led by group vice chairman and Tory member of parliament Andrew Rosindell, the delegation is in Taiwan July 30 to Aug. 5 on a cultural, economic, political and cross-strait fact-finding visit.
According to the president, at a time when the government is putting greater emphasis on the five-plus-two innovative industries initiative, it is important for Taiwan and the U.K. to ramp up cooperation on green energy—one of the five emerging and high-tech sectors targeted for promotion under the initiative aimed at revitalizing the nation’s economy. It is hoped the two sides will continue enhancing exchanges in this sector through such mechanisms as the annual Taiwan-U.K. Renewable Energy Roundtable, she said.
Tsai identified offshore wind power generation as a potential-laden field in which Taiwan and British firms can work together in pursuing opportunities at home and abroad. The government welcomes investment in this regard and is working to remove any regulatory hurdles, she said.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Taiwan and the U.K. enjoy close ties across the areas of economy, mutual judicial assistance, tourism, trade, transportation and youth exchanges. Last year, Taiwan was the U.K.’s eighth largest trading partner in the Asia-Pacific, while the U.K. was Taiwan’s third largest in Europe. The value of two-way trade reached US$5.85 billion.
Recent milestones in the bilateral relationship include the streamlining in January of procedures for Republic of China (Taiwan) nationals applying for the U.K.’s working holiday Youth Mobility Scheme, the signing in May 2016 of a prisoner transfer agreement and Taiwan’s addition in January the same year to the U.K.’s Registered Traveler service. (SFC-E)