Taiwan is most likely to pick Singapore as the first country to work with in regards to President Tsai Ing-wen’s New Southbound Policy. That’s the word from Deputy Economics Minister Yang Wei-fu on Tuesday atthe 13th Taiwan-Singapore economic forum in Taipei.
Tsai’s policy aims to strengthen Taiwan’s ties to Southeast Asia and India. Yang said Taiwan has the most confidence in working with Singapore.
Yang said, “We have recently been approached by a number of countries which have just as much enthusiasm as Singapore to cooperate with us. We are very thankful for the initiative from the Singapore Trade Office in Taipei and our economics ministry is working in that direction. We have the most confidence in cooperating with Singapore.”
Trade Representative from Singapore, Simon Wong, was at the forum on Tuesday. Wong said he hopes that Taiwan can work with Singapore to develop cooperation in a third country.
Wong said, “Would it be possible that if the 14th economic forum were to be held in Singapore, that a Singapore-Taiwan cooperation project would take place in a Southeast Asian nation, perhaps Myanmar? And that another Taiwan-Singapore cooperation would be in India?”
Meanwhile, Deputy Economics Minister Yang Wei-fu said that collaborations with Myanmar, India, Indonesia and Vietnam are in the planning stages.