“Guatemala and Taiwan will always remain steadfast friends,” Guatemalan Congress President Luis Alberto Contreras Colindres said yesterday during a meeting with President William Lai (賴清德) at the Presidential Office.
Taiwan is an exemplary nation when it comes to societal development, innovation and economic growth, and time and again proves that determination, vision and hard work can achieve remarkable results, said Contreras — who is leading a delegation of Guatemalan lawmakers — as he reaffirmed the two countries’ strong ties.
For two consecutive years, Guatemalan exports to Taiwan have reached US$130 million, with the country becoming Taiwan’s largest supplier of sugar and fourth-largest supplier of coffee, Lai said.
Photo: CNA
Guatemala has steadily advanced its Chip Road Project national development plan, and boosted economic and trade ties with Taiwan following the signing of a memorandum of understanding on semiconductor cooperation, Lai said.
This is the first time that Contreras or members of the Guatemalan congress have visited Taiwan, he said, adding that he hoped they better understand the country.
He thanked the delegation for advancing parliamentary exchanges and showing the international community the deep friendship between their two nations.
Taiwan and Guatemala have furthered cooperation in the past few years on issues from medical care to industrial development to economic trade, all of which have produced significant results, Lai said.
In June last year, Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo visited Taiwan, when he and Lai reaffirmed the two countries’ ties and signed a letter of intent to further semiconductor cooperation.
They also jointly witnessed the signing of cooperation agreements to establish a political consultation mechanism and continue to promote bilateral investment.
Taiwan will encourage more Taiwanese companies to use Guatemala as a base for entering markets in Latin America, as stronger ties would bring more business opportunities for both sides, Lai said yesterday.
He thanked Contreras for signing a resolution in May in support of Taiwan’s participation in international organizations such as the UN and the WHO.
Typhoon Bavi’s center is looking more likely to pass north of Taiwan than to make landfall in the northern part of the country, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm is still too far away to forecast its exact track. As of 2pm yesterday, the center of Typhoon Bavi was about 2,560km east-southeast of Taiwan, moving west-northwest at 27kph, according to the agency. The storm, which has a radius of 350km, had sustained winds of 216kph near its center, with gusts of up to 270kph, CWA data showed. Bavi is expected to pass closest to Taiwan on Friday or
Typhoon Bavi is forecast to start having a major effect on the weather in Taiwan on Thursday and its outer bands could bring rain and lower temperatures across the country, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. The storm is still far from Taiwan, and its path is not certain, the CWA said, adding that it did not rule out issuing a sea or land warning. As of 2pm yesterday, the typhoon was about 3,360km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, and was moving west to west-northwest at 13kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of up to 191kph near its center,
A 33-year-old Chinese man was arrested yesterday at Taichung International Airport after he allegedly assaulted a Japanese media personality following his speech on cross-strait relations in a hotel in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯). After giving a speech in Taichung yesterday morning, Akio Yaita, was attacked by a man wearing black inside a hotel lobby, who police identified as a Chinese man surnamed Liao (廖). Yaita, formerly the Sankei Shimbun Taipei bureau chief, was invited as a keynote speaker at a conference hosted by the Spring Rain Culture and Education Foundation, where he spoke on cross-strait relations and Indo-Pacific security, according
TRENDS: The survey results released by the MAC showed that support for maintaining the ‘status quo’ indefinitely had risen to 33.9%, while 61% opposed unification Despite Beijing intensifying its legal warfare against Taiwan, public opposition to unification with China has grown significantly over the past two decades, with the proportion of Taiwanese who reject unification rising to 61.7 percent this year from 39 percent in 2005, polling trends released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) showed. In addition to the “Anti-Secession” Law enacted in 2005 and the “22 guidelines to punish Taiwanese independence,” China on Wednesday last week promulgated the Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law, that critics in Taiwan say aims to reinforce the false identification of Taiwanese as members of the Chinese nation.