Taiwan Today

After a six-year hiatus, Taiwan and Malaysia reopened their ministerial-level meetings on trade and economy March 31, according to economic officials. Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang flew to Malaysia March 31 with a delegation to attend the seventh Taiwan-Malaysia ministerial trade and economic meeting. The annual meetings had been suspended since June 2004. “This year’s meeting was a friendly one,” said the minister, who was back in Taiwan April 2. The resumption in meetings is believed to be a positive result of the economic cooperation framework agreement due to be signed soon between Taiwan and mainland China, analysts said. “Once the ECFA takes effect, we expect more members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to resume high-level talks on economy and commerce with Taiwan,” said an MOEA official. According to a member of the delegation, during the meeting Shih told Mustapa Mohamed, Malaysia’s minister of international trade and industry, of Taipei’s wish to sign a free trade agreement with Kuala Lumpur, while Mustapa expressed interest in the progress on ECFA. “Mustapa said the signing of the cross-strait agreement will facilitate the signing of an FTA between Taiwan and Malaysia,” quoted the official. Various other issues were discussed during this meeting, including a visa waiver program for citizens of Taiwan; fast-tracking the signing of an agricultural cooperation memorandum; facilitating bilateral investment by companies from both countries; establishing an electronic certificate of origins exchange program; and co-developing radio-frequency identification systems. The Taiwan-based Institute for Information Industry and a multimedia R&D institute in Malaysia have agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding soon, to formulate a framework for future cooperation. (TYH-THN) (This article originally appeared in the “United Daily News” April 3.)