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TAEF BRIEF
January 28, 2022
No. 84 |
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CONTENT
-TAEF Updates
-TAEF Commentaries
-Consortium Updates
-New Southbound Policy News
-Regional Headlines |
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Event Highlights: A New Roadmap for New Southbound Policy after COVID-19 |
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January 19, 2021
Back in August 2021, the TAEF held a dialogue in which government officials and trade practitioners were invited as panelists to share their outlook on the future of the New Southbound Policy.
During the dialogue, Dr. Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao, Chairman of the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation, argued, "In the past five years, the involvement of different Taiwanese actors has been gradually seen in Southeast Asia and South Asia, this is very impressive." And this was echoed by Tien, Chung-kwang, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs & Chancellor, Institute of Diplomacy and International Affairs, R.O.C (Taiwan), who added, "These 18 countries are good at different aspects. Therefore, we can learn from them and to share or communicate with them, so that we can complement each other." More key messages adopted from the panelists' remarks are now shown in a highlight video produced by the TAEF
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TAEF Produced a Mini-documentary Film on Taiwan's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs |
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January 24, 2022
Mr. Nguyễn Hoang Long and his sister Juan Ho Huang Mei, whose parents are from Vietnam, are young artists participating in the 2020 Cultivation Program for New Immigrants and their Children, initiated by Taiwan's National Immigration Agency. The program helped them return to Vietnam, and find links between Taiwan and Vietnam's cultural industries.
Mr. Nguyễn Hoang Long applied his on-site observations in Vietnam, created cultural creative picture collections, and successfully designed cloths filled with elements of Vietnamese culture that have already been internationally recognized for their uniqueness.
Mr. Nguyễn's story of entrepreneurship was recently broadcasted in a mini-documentary film, produced by the TAEF.
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The Economic Times
Foxconn Furore: Poor Working Conditions and a Wake-up Call for Industry, Regulators |
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January 20, 2021
- Dr. Sana Hashmi, Visiting Fellow, Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation
Apple supplier Foxconn has landed in the soup again with its workers complaining of poor working conditions. Host Dia Rekhi in conversation with Sana Hashmi, Visiting Fellow at the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation, Sasikumar Gendham, Salcomp India’s managing director, and Justice K Chandru, former judge of the Madras High Court find out what led to this issue and how will this impact the growing electronics manufacturing ecosystem in India.
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NEW SOUTHBOUND POLICY NEWS |
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Taipei Times
Taiwan-India Ties Ready to Take Off
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January 25, 2022
The State Bank of India has raised US$300 million from the Taiwanese market through a maiden issue of Formosa bonds at a coupon rate of 2.49 percent. The issuance attracted a wide range of investors, such as supranational agencies, asset managers, private bankers and financial institutions. Meanwhile, the Indian government has also started talks with Taiwan on a free-trade agreement.
These developments would normally have been treated as a routine affair between India and Taiwan, but as the countries do not enjoy formal ties, and India has in the past remained hesitant to sign a free-trade agreement with Taiwan, the activities underscore a profound shift in New Delhi’s policy toward Taipei. More to the point, the successive governments before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried to foster ties with Taiwan in a closet due to their fear of China.
Now, India has taken several bold initiatives to openly acknowledge its ties with Taiwan. One such decision was of course to invite Taiwan’s ambassador to Modi’s swearing-in ceremony. Taiwan’s de facto embassy in New Delhi has also been given more public space.
The Indian political leadership’s new approach toward Taiwan has inadvertently encouraged Indian print and electronic media to focus on the relationship between the nations.
Read more
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Radio Taiwan International
Trade Council, Economics Ministry Launch Medical Innovation Project
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January 21, 2022
Taiwan’s external trade council, TAITRA, has launched a project to bring medical innovations developed in Taiwan to a global market.
The project has been launched with the support of the economics ministry’s Bureau of Foreign Trade.
The project aims to speed up innovation in Taiwan’s domestic medical sector, expand the scope of the biotechnology field in Taiwan, and link up Taiwanese innovators with international markets.
Eleven accelerators and medical experts involved in developing and promoting medical innovations are taking part in the project.
TAITRA Chairman James Huang says that clinical medicine in Taiwan is top-rate, and that Taiwan has accumulated a great potential for innovation in the medical field. Huang says that the project aims to use this potential to help with the entire process of getting innovations out into global markets, starting from the research and development stage.
Read more
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Wall Street Journal
France’s Total Exits Myanmar, Citing Shareholder Pressure Since Coup
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January 21, 2022
France’s TotalEnergies SE TTE -0.40% said it is withdrawing from Myanmar over shareholder pressure and a deteriorating human-rights situation since the country’s military seized power in a coup last year.
Western energy companies have faced growing calls to divest or withhold revenue from the junta, while governments including the U.S. and France have come under pressure to sanction the sector.
Myanmar’s oil-and-gas industry is the country’s single largest source of foreign revenue.
TotalEnergies is the largest shareholder and operator of Myanmar’s largest natural-gas project, an offshore field called Yadana, providing energy for domestic use and export.
The project is a partnership between TotalEnergies, Chevron Corp. and Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production PTTEP -2.36% PLC, along with state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, known as MOGE. TotalEnergies holds a 31% stake in the project, which was launched in 1992.
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Aljazeera
UN Seeks Thailand’s Help to Halt Myanmar Crisis Deterioration
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January 18, 2022
A United Nations envoy has called for Thailand’s support to prevent an escalation of the crisis in neighbouring Myanmar and welcomed assurances that refugees fleeing Myanmar military operations would be protected by the Thai government.
Noeleen Heyzer, the UN secretary-general’s special envoy on Myanmar, made the appeal to Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha as the Myanmar situation increased discord within ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and caused the postponement of a ministers’ meeting set for this week.
Heyzer is courting support for international efforts to help displaced people and press Myanmar’s military rulers to commit to a five-point peace plan agreed to with fellow ASEAN members last April.
“The prime minister has an important role in preventing further deterioration of the crisis in Myanmar, where an implosion would bring further instability to an already volatile border area,” Heyzer said in a statement on Monday.
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Nikkei Asia
China's Pan-Asian Railway Sputters to a Halt in Thailand
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January 16, 2022
China's plan to build a pan-Asian railway through the Indochina region is sputtering as construction of a connection to Thailand has stalled due to deteriorating ties and both countries' diverging priorities.
China has been keen to play the leading role in the building of a railway network in Southeast Asia. Its principal aim is to secure a land transport route that can serve as an alternative to marine shipping routes that pass through the South China Sea and the Malacca Straits.
For this strategy to work, China needs Thailand to cooperate as the railway line has to go through the country to reach Malaysia and Singapore. Some experts in Thailand are clamoring for quick government action to connect Thailand and Laos with a high-speed railway line, but the government has been less keen.
These changes sharply reduced China's role in the project. Under the new blueprint, Thailand will finance, build and operate the railway line on its own, while designs and systems for the high-speed train services will be provided by China.
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