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Vice President Lai Ching-te leads delegation to the Repubic of Palau

Purpose and Achievements
中文

Purpose and Achievements

Vice President Lai attends Leads Delegation to the Repubic of Palau

Purpose

President Surangel S. Whipps Jr. of Palau led a delegation on a state visit to Taiwan from October 5 to 10, during which he met with President Tsai Ing-wen, explained the serious impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Palau's tourism sector, and expressed hope for the government of Taiwan to promote Palauan tourism among Taiwan's travel companies and people in order to help Palau stimulate its economy. On the basis of Taiwan's friendly diplomatic ties and longstanding cooperation with Palau, President Tsai appointed Vice President Lai Ching-te to lead a delegation to Palau.

Itinerary (Local time)

 

Achievements

Itinerary Overview

From November 1 to 3, Vice President Lai visited Palau with a delegation of 125 people, including officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the Tourism Bureau of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, as well as executives from Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital and the Hotel Royal Group. His delegation also included representatives from Taiwan's tourism sector, radio stations, professional baseball teams, and fisheries and aquaculture sector, together with internet opinion leaders and journalists.

During their visit to Palau, Vice President Lai and his delegation met with President Whipps, attended a welcome ceremony at the Palau National Congress hosted by Palau Senate President Hokkons Baules and House of Delegates Speaker Sabino Anastacio, witnessed a groundbreaking ceremony for a road building project in Palau's capital, and visited a farm developed by the International Cooperation and Development Fund (TaiwanICDF) technical mission in Palau. The vice president and his delegation also attended a welcome banquet hosted by President Whipps, toured Palau's Rock Islands Southern Lagoon, hosted an appreciation banquet, witnessed the donation of equipment to a telemedicine center established by Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital and the Palau Ministry of Health and Human Services, attended a ceremony for the donation of baseball supplies, and held a reception for the press corps traveling with his delegation.

Significance

Vice President Lai's itinerary focused on the three objectives entrusted to him by President Tsai, and he communicated that our government is willing to continue to help Palau stimulate its tourism sector and strengthen bilateral cooperation across the board, thereby deepening diplomatic ties between Taiwan and Palau. The achievements of Vice President Lai's visit were praised by political and traditional leaders of Palau including President Whipps, Vice President J. Uduch Sengebau Senior, Senate President Baules, House of Delegates Speaker Anastacio, Paramount High Chief Reklai Raphael Ngirmang, and Queen Bilung Gloria Salii.

 

President Whipps on several occasions publicly thanked President Tsai for promptly responding to the requests of the Palau government and for appointing Vice President Lai to lead representatives of Taiwan's national, county, and city-level travel associations and major domestic travel agencies to Palau, which is known as "God's aquarium" and a "pristine paradise," in order to help introduce Palau to the people of Taiwan. The vice president's visit has seen initial achievements as China Airlines announced the November 16 resumption of regularly scheduled flights between Taiwan and Palau, and Taiwanese travel agencies started active promotion of group tours and individual package tours to Palau.

 

Since establishing diplomatic relations in 1999, Taiwan and Palau have cooperated closely in the fields of medicine, agriculture, education, clean energy, information and communications technology, and infrastructure, maintaining regular progress in our cooperative projects and revising these projects on a rolling basis as needed. When President Whipps visited Taiwan in October this year, our two countries signed an Agreement on Public Finance Cooperation, an Agreement Concerning the Acceptance of Seagoing Service, Education and Training of Seafarers, a Letter of Intent for Tourism Revitalization, and a Letter of Intent for Aquaculture Development Cooperation. In addition, during his trip to Palau, Vice President Lai engaged in baseball diplomacy, further diversifying the scope of our bilateral cooperation. President Whipps expressed his great satisfaction with the accomplishments of Vice President Lai's trip, openly proclaiming that the Republic of China (Taiwan) has given Palau new hope and that the visiting delegation had hit a "grand slam plus one."

 
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