Taiwan relaunches Southbound policy

Taipei – The Taiwan government has introduced a “New Southbound Policy” that seeks to strengthen its relationship with neighboring countries in Southeast Asia and South Asia, including Australia and New Zealand. 

John Deng, Taiwan’s minister at large, said the new policy will help promote their economy, culture, agriculture, education, among other aspects. 

As early as 1997, Taiwan was one of the largest investors in Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia, and has created jobs in other countries.  

“We have very sound foundation for us to further cultivate our relations with them, to broaden and to deepen our relations with them,” Deng said. 

Samuel Wu, director general of the Department of Cultural Exchange, Ministry of Culture, said the Taiwan government has just reviewed its “Old Southbound Policy,” which previously centered only on commerce, business and investments. 

Wu said President Tsai Ing-Wen  has re-launched the New Southbound Policy and has widened its scope and centered the policies on what Taiwan has to offer that would be beneficial to its neighboring countries. 

“So this time, it centered more on culture exchange and more on people-to-people relationship and also, I can see deeper into strengthening the entrepreneurship relationship,” Wu said.

 In the New Southbound Policy, the Taiwan government will promote economic collaboration with its neighboring countries; share and complement human resources; improve quality of life in partner countries and expand its economic footprint. 

It will also advance its regional safety and prosperity with its neighboring countries.  

Peter Pan, executive officer of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines said the New Southbound Policy would be beneficial to the Philippines being the home of more than 150,000 overseas Filipino workers. 

Pan said the Philippine government should expand and strengthen its relationship with Taiwan. 

He said the strong relationship between the Philippines and Taiwan would create a “win, win” situation, and would be favorable to the enhancement in terms of peace and stability. 

He explained the Philippines was among the countries considered by the Taiwan government to be  prioritized in the New Southbound Policy being one of the fastest growing economies globally and having  good and strong economic fundamentals. 

The Philippines and Taiwan have also strong ties as far as trade and investments are concerned.  

In fact, two-way trade between the Philippines and Taiwan significantly increased 15 percent amounting to $10.870 billion last year as compared to the $9.608 billion in 2015.

Recently, the Taiwan government opened its doors for Philippine tourists after coming up with a visa-free travel beginning June this year up to July 31, 2018 for a period of up to 30 days.