Location: Taipei City – Taiwan
Language: Mandarin-English
Duration: 00:05:57
Source: A24 subscribers
Restrictions: A24 clients
Dateline: 14/02/2022
Storyline:
As Taiwan eyes potential in Slovenia and further economic and trade cooperation with the East European nation, questions about the possibility of official representation and the sending of Slovene diplomatic missions to Taiwan have arisen. Joanne Ou, Spokesperson of Taiwan’s foreign ministry, said that Taiwan is adamant about engaging with “like-minded” countries in various fields and nurturing cooperation. Marcin Jerzewski, who is a political analyst, said that even though the two-way trade has increased notably between the two countries, there remain certain limitations that prevent the two countries from leveraging the full potential they have to offer. Those limitations are mostly focused on the fact that they cannot establish diplomatic missions due to the sensitive China-Taiwan situation, as Jerzewski said that if those obstacles were to be bypassed, trade could expand to include high-value products and areas of artificial intelligence.
Shots list:
– (Soundbite) Marcin Jerzewski – Research fellow for Next Generation Taiwan
“Taiwanese export to Slovenia increased by over 50%. And Taiwanese imports from Slovenia increased by 25%. And even though these dynamics exist amid trade, which is limited in volume, they point to the reasons behind the exchange of representatives between the two countries. If you want to look at the contents of the current trade relations between Taiwan and Slovenia, the two sides trade mainly in machinery and mechanical equipment. However, there is tremendous potential for greater collaboration in high-tech, in economic relations, and here, I am referring to both trade and investments, with regards to both high value-added products, such as Artificial Intelligence, highly-specialized robots and, of course, semi-conductors t, hat everyone seems to be eyeing.”
– (Soundbite) Chen Kuan-ting – CEO for Next Generation Taiwan:
“For every 10,000 people, there are 144 robots. And for the same people, there are 91 robots in the U.S. What I want to say is that when we exchange representative offices, the cooperation in technology, Taiwan’s semiconductor industry to digital technology, to the manufacture of hardware will increase. We have all these capacities in Taiwan. But the land and electricity in Taiwan are limited. Although we welcome manufacturers coming to Taiwan, we have a lot of capital to put into like-minded countries. We can move our manpower, know-how, and capital to European countries.”
– (Soundbite) Marcin Jerzewski – Research fellow for Next Generation Taiwan:
“The cooperation is there already (Between Taiwan and Slovenia). As I mentioned earlier there is cooperation in trade, there is cooperation in machinery, but, to facilitate the expansion of ties, it is important to have institutions that can live up to the task. And in the context of the relations between Taiwan and Slovenia, the main pillar of initialization will be representative places in the capitals.”
– (Soundbite) Chen Kuan-ting – CEO for Next Generation Taiwan:
“In the past few years, China has been imposing trade barriers to countries such as Australia and countries friendly to Taiwan and giving a hard time to those countries. But I have to emphasize that this is a wrong approach. This will only show Central and Eastern European countries that China is being irrational.”
– (Soundbite) Marcin Jerzewski – Research fellow for Next Generation Taiwan:
“Whenever we talk about China and each of the 27 EU member states, we have to remember that the negative consequences will be suffered not only by the one particular country, but by EU’s 27 states as a whole. Therefore, what is happening in Lithuania will serve as an important test for European unity and the European Union’s ability to effectively counter secondary sanctions, to effectively counter coercion vis-à-vis its members. The consequences that Slovenia could potentially face following the decisions to deepen ties with Taiwan will also depend on the decisions undertaken by key executives in Brussels, not only in Ljubljana. At this point, China remains an important partner for Slovene entrepreneurs, and there is also a considerable amount of disagreement within the highest level of Slovene politics on whether to seek closer ties with Taiwan or not.”
– (Soundbite) Joanne Ou, Spokesperson of Taiwan’s foreign ministry:
“During Slovenia’s presidency on the European Union in the past year, Slovene Prime Minister Janez Janša used to publicly support Taiwan and Lithuania’s relations. This is proof of solid friendship and strong support toward Taiwan. Taiwan’s MOFA always adopts an honest and open attitude to like-minded countries in the rest of the world and we will aggressively engage in opportunities to have meaningful cooperation. Including Slovenia, Taiwan’s foreign ministry will engage with like-minded countries in various fields possible and nurture cooperation that is beneficial to each other.”
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