“Good news”. A new representative office in the Italian city of Milan is “a good news”, said Paolo Formentini, vice-chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies.
- The opening of the office will further strengthen trade links between Taiwan and Italy, as well as demonstrate the shared values between the two countries.
A new office. Taiwan will set up the “Taipei Representative Office in Italy – Milan Office”, which will be its second such establishment in Italy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei said Monday.
- Preparations for the establishment of the Milan office are in progress, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release, without giving a timeline for its opening.
- Taiwan currently has only one representative office in Italy, in the capital Rome, and the one being set up in the northern city of Milan will help facilitate closer trade and economic links with that part of the European country, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
- Representative offices allow Taiwan to both facilitate trade and strengthen its international standing ahead of Chinese “reunification” goals.
A step back. Currently, there is a Taiwan Trade Center in Milan, which is run by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council, a non-profit organization that seeks to help Taiwanese business enter foreign markets and boost their global competitiveness.
- Last October, Taiwan’s EVA Airways launched a new passenger service between Taipei and Milan.
- According to MOFA, the new representative office will also offer consular and emergency services to Taiwanese expatriates living and working in the eight administrative regions in northern Italy, namely Aosta Valley, Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Trentino-Alto Adige.
Growing relations. According to the head of Taipei Representative Office in Italy, Vincent Tsai, relations between the two countries “are very good and growing”.
- Italy is Taiwan’s third-largest trading partner in the European Union and industrial collaborations span from automotive, to IT, to construction.
- “Nevertheless, and this is more important, last year Taiwan was at the centre of the Italian parliamentary debate on more than one occasion,” Mr Tsai added in a recent interview.
- In early December, the Taiwan issue formally debuted in Italy-US relations.
