Efforts by Taiwan’s representative offices around the world in collaboration with the Ministry of Economic Affairs helped increase foreign trade and investment in the third quarter of 2019 while strengthening the country’s relationship with its allies and like-minded partners, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dec. 9.
 
By staging investment tours, trade fairs and other promotional events, the two ministries and government-supported Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) helped generate US$330 million in potential procurement deals for local firms and attract US$160 million in incoming foreign investment, the MOFA said.
 
Of equal importance were the 150 or so visits organized by the ministry for senior officials between Taiwan and its key trading partners, in addition to numerous meetings between representative office staffers and business leaders.
 
Notable high-level discussions and exchanges in Q3 took place between deputy trade ministers from Taiwan and the Kingdom of Eswatini, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay and the U.K, among other countries.
 
During this period, Taiwan’s representative offices helped seal a raft of accords. These include an agreement on public finance cooperation and combating transnational crimes with St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a fintech cooperation deal with France, a technological cooperation agreement with the Netherlands, and a memorandum of understanding on fishery cooperation with Fiji.
 
The country’s representative offices in the U.S. and the Czech Republic also assisted in the passage of nine resolutions in central or local law-making bodies supporting trade engagement with Taiwan, the MOFA said. (SFC-E)
 
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