FLTR: William Wang, second assistant director (Taipei Liaison Office), Chris Macpherson (Executive Mayor of the Greater Oudtshoorn), David Yontso Lin, director general(Taipei Liaison Office), Gavin Juthe (Deputy Executive Mayor of the Greater Oudtshoorn) and Douglas Chang, first assistant director (Taipei Liaison Office)
Oudtshoorn, 17 March 2021 – The executive mayor of the Greater Oudtshoorn, Chris Macpherson and the deputy mayor, Gavin Juthe held talks last week with the delegation from the Taipei South African Liaison Office based in Cape Town, to revitalise a relationship that the Greater Oudtshoorn had with Taiwan, many years ago.
The two Greater Oudtshoorn leaders met with David Yontso Lin, director general, Douglas Chang, first assistant director and William Wang, second assistant director in George on Monday, 8 March 2021.
“The purpose of our meeting was to revisit the relationship we once had with Taipei and attract investment into the Greater Oudtshoorn,” said Mayor Macpherson. “Now is the time to re-establish the links with a municipality in Taipei and see to what extent we can partner for development of cultural, educational, economical international relations.
According to the Taipei Liaison Office the diplomatic ties between the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the Republic of South Africa were terminated in January 1998, however, after negotiations, it was decided that the two countries would set up liaison offices in the respective countries. Taiwan has the Taipei Liaison Office in the Republic of South Africa and South Africa also has the Liaison Office of South Africa in Taiwan. Both countries still keep close relations.
The Taipei Liaison Office consists of Political, Consular, Economic, Information and Service Coordination Divisions in South Africa. These divisions serve to promote economic, trade, cultural, educational, scientific, financial, and other exchanges and encourage cooperation between Taiwan and South Africa.
“We intend to set up meetings to among others, discuss in detail the possible students’ exchanges, connect people in cultural diversity that exists between the two countries,” Macpherson added. “This possible relationship would have economical spin-offs for the Greater Oudtshoorn as we would tap on the smart cities model China as well as agriculture.
“The discussion took a very good shape and we are hopeful that the Municipality may be able to re-establish this relations,” Macpherson concluded.