The Executive Yuan held a press conference on Wednesday to announce the signing between Taiwan and the U.S. of a framework to strengthen basic infrastructure financing and market building cooperation. The event was attended by Minister of the National Development Council Kung Ming-hsin, Minister of Finance Su Jain-rong, Minister of Foreign Affairs Jaushieh Joseph Wu, and Director of the American Institute in Taiwan Brent Christensen.
The Ministry of Finance (MOF) said that in order to reinforce Taiwan-U.S. cooperation on infrastructure, and thanks to the dedication of both governments, Hsueh Mei-yu, deputy representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States, and Ingrid Larson, managing director of the Washington Office of the American Institute in Taiwan, signed a framework to strengthen infrastructure finance and market building cooperation on September 17, 2020, in acknowledgment of both nations' commitment to regional infrastructure development.
Furthermore, the MOF said that the framework will serve to bolster cooperation in a number of areas, including financing infrastructure and building markets; identifying and structuring infrastructure investments that meet the requirements and priorities of investors; and promoting regional infrastructure investment and finance initiatives. This will facilitate Taiwan-U.S. participation in infrastructure development projects in the Americas and Southeast Asia while also fundamentally deepening their alliance with a vision that complements Taiwan's New Southbound Policy. The ministry also said that bilateral working groups will be organized in a manner consistent with the details of the framework.
The MOF further stated that through interagency efforts, the framework can be applied to the government's infrastructure, energy, finance, and trade initiatives so as to solidify Taiwan's presence in the Indo-Pacific and Latin America, adding that the government will form a cooperation team led by Minister of National Development Kung and Minister of Finance Su. With the framework in place, it said, Taiwan will be given more opportunities to contribute to regional infrastructure.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it is delighted to witness the achievement of yet another milestone between Taiwan and the U.S., and the signing of the cooperation framework takes the Taiwan-U.S. partnership to a new level.
Over the years, the National Development Council and American Institute in Taiwan have jointly organized three Taiwan-U.S. Digital Economy Forum meetings. As the digital economy grows in importance, this forum has served as a platform for high-level policy dialogue on the digital economy and industrial cooperation between the two countries. Collaboration between both sides has also progressed from information exchanges to training cooperation since Taiwan and the U.S. launched the Global Cooperation and Training Framework in 2015.
The Taiwan-U.S. cooperation framework signed this month not only provides an opportunity for deepening cooperation between Taiwan and the U.S., but also enables both sides to undertake more specific cooperation projects in New Southbound Policy partner countries and the Indo-Pacific region, and cooperate with more like-minded countries. Through this mechanism, Taiwan can expand its international presence, seize investment opportunities, and capitalize on trends in international infrastructure and energy markets. In the future, Taiwan will also actively explore how to stimulate the provision of private sector funding and increase private sector participation so that related countries can become better integrated with the global market.