Vice President Vincent C. Siew on the afternoon of August 6 at the Presidential Building met with the new Japan Interchange Association Taipei Office Chief Representative Mr. Saito Masaki. The vice president welcomed Chief Representative Saito on assuming his new position here.
The vice president said that Chief Representative Saito is a senior diplomat. He noted that Mr. Saito once studied Chinese at National Taiwan Normal University and previously lived in Taiwan for several years. He is quite familiar with Taiwan and is now returning here after being away for over 30 years, the vice president said. Wishing Chief Representative Saito good luck in his position at the Japan Interchange Association Taipei Office, Vice President Siew expressed his hope that relations between the two countries will become closer.
The vice president said that many years ago he had frequent and close interaction with Japan due to the nature of his work at the time. Over three decades ago, the vice president said, he worked at the Board of Foreign Trade. At that time, Japan was Taiwan’s largest trading partner and the two sides frequently needed to hold consultations on various issues. As a result, he frequently traveled to and met with Japanese officials during his tenure at the Board of Foreign Trade. While no longer working in a governmental position starting in 2000, the vice president said he still sought to promote exchanges between Taiwan and Japan. Over a five-year period, he visited Japan over 20 times, traveling to many places and having a wide range of contact with Japanese academics, research institutions and industrial representatives. Vice President Siew said that while relations between Taiwan and Japan have been good in recent years, there is still room for further improvement.
Chief Representative Saito expressed his appreciation to Vice President Siew for taking time out of his busy schedule to meet with him. He also thanked the vice president for delivering an address on July 20 to the Taiwan-Japan Forum Taipei 2008 International Conference.
Chief Representative Saito was accompanied to the Presidential Building in the afternoon to meet with Vice President Siew by Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrew Li-Yan Hsia and other officials from the Japan Interchange Association Taipei Office.