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On the morning of March 29, President Tsai Ing-wen met with a visiting delegation led by Ms. Nam In-Soon, Chairperson of the Korean National Assembly's Gender Equality and Family Committee. The president said that through international cooperation, gender concepts can be brought to bear in all fields, and expressed hope that Taiwan and Korea can create more opportunities for exchanges and cooperation.
In remarks, President Tsai noted that Taiwan and Korea have had increasingly frequent exchanges in recent years in areas like regional security, economic and trade relations, culture, education, and tourism. This is especially true in the travel field as Taiwan became Korea's third-largest source of tourist arrivals this year, and vice-versa. Korean is often heard, the president said, at Presidential Office Building exhibitions.
President Tsai stated that Taiwan and Korea have quite similar social structures, and both countries face issues like long-term care and women's participation. So she hopes that in the future both countries will share their experiences on a wide range of issues, through people-to-people and parliamentary exchanges, to create even more opportunities for communication and cooperation.
The president pointed out that all her visitors are outstanding female Korean parliamentarians who have made important contributions to the women's movement, human rights, and democratization. For Taiwan, women's empowerment is an important issue. About one-third of Taiwan's entrepreneurs are women, and women have nearly 40% of the seats in Taiwan's legislature. Last year, Ms. Nam and fellow assemblywoman Jung Choun-sook held a symposium at the Korean National Assembly on women's political participation in Taiwan to familiarize Korean political circles with the state of women's empowerment in Taiwan. President Tsai thanked them for acknowledging Taiwan's promotion of women's rights.
The president also mentioned that Taiwan, the United States, and Australia jointly announced establishment of an APEC Women and the Economy Sub-Fund last year. "Our goal is to bring gender concepts to bear in all fields through international cooperation," said President Tsai, who expressed hope that Taiwan and Korea will have even more opportunities for exchanges and cooperation on gender and related issues.
In closing, the president emphasized that her visitors, in addition to being important female members of the Korean National Assembly, are also important members of the Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee. Taiwan has a lot of experience in the field of communicable disease control and is an indispensable link in the international health and disease control network, so she asked the visitors to exert their influence and support Taiwan's participation in this year's World Health Assembly. She also asked Ms. Nam to convey her best regards to President Moon Jae-in.
