As the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) was to convene its triennial Assembly in Montreal on September 27th, Canada’s largest national newspaper “The Globe and Mail” on September 21st published a letter written by Catherine Y. M. Hsu, Director General of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, Toronto. The letter, titled “Taiwan, too,” pointed out that Taiwan is an indispensable piece of the international aviation network and should not be absent from this year’s ICAO meeting. It also emphasized that the upholding of a safe and pollution-free sky should be a team effort; no part of the world should be excluded. Taiwan’s participation will contribute to the success of the global aviation sector’s emission reduction efforts. Therefore, Canada and other members of the international community should support Taiwan’s participation in the most important aviation organization in the world, the ICAO.
Citing an article written by Ho Chen Tan, Taiwan’s Minister of Transportation and Communications, DG Hsu reiterated that Taiwan plays an important role in the global aviation network. Its Taoyuan International Airport was ranked 11th and 6th in the world for passenger and cargo volumes, respectively. In the same year, 74 airlines offered services to and from Taiwan, operating scheduled passenger and cargo flights on 301 routes and connecting 135 cities around the world. Moreover, the Taipei Flight Information Region – administered by Taiwan – provided more than 1.5 million instances of air-traffic-control services and handled 58 million incoming and outgoing passengers in 2015.
With such a prominent scale in civil aviation, DG Hsu wrote: “Taiwan hopes to be invited again, following the precedent of 2013, to participate in the ICAO Assembly so as to join the international discussion regarding the safety, security and environmental issues in the global aviation sector.”
“The Globe and Mail” was founded in 1844, and has since based in Toronto. It is Canada’s largest national newspaper, regarded as the “newspaper of record.” “The Globe and Mail” has long been recognized as the newspaper Canadian economic, financial, academic and political elites must read. It almost always reflects the public opinion in Canada’s mainstream society.
