Taiwan envoy to Turkiye wants to elevate bilateral ties | Taiwan News | 2023-01-20 14:09:00

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — There are still many untapped areas of cooperation between Taiwan and Turkiye, Taiwan envoy to Turkiye Volkan Chih-yang Huang (黃志揚) said in an interview with Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah on Thursday (Jan. 19).

“We feel it is the time for Turkiye and Taiwan to look for a more flexible and pragmatic way to boost our bilateral relations and raise them to a new level,” Huang said. There is a lot of trade and investment between the two countries, as well as cultural, academic, and educational exchanges, he said.

However, he noted, “We have seen relations being overshadowed by an old political constraint. It is unnecessary.”

He said the two countries could cooperate more on humanitarian assistance. Taiwan should do more in this aspect, as a member of the international community, he said.

Huang said his representative office has worked with the Turkish government, local municipalities, and NGOs such as the Turkish Red Crescent to provide aid for migrants and address women’s empowerment and children’s education.

Another area of cooperation he mentioned is green and smart city initiatives and combatting climate change.

“We have opportunities to share our experiences and also through the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development mechanism, we have supported the green city action plan both in Ankara and Istanbul. We also supported a program in Ankara which was 350,000 euros ($377,640) and 1 million euros in Istanbul with our fund in the EBRD,” he said.

The representative added that Turkiye wants to collaborate with Taiwan in the semiconductor industry. Both private and public sectors have expressed interest but the details still have to be hammered out.

He said developing a semiconductor sector is a long-term effort and requires lots of investment, sufficient funds, and support via government policy.

Huang praised the Turkish government for being “flexible” and able to adapt to any situation. “We really hope they can follow suit like European countries to adopt a better approach to construct a mutually beneficial partnership,” he said.

Taiwan and Turkiye mutually established representative offices in 1993.