While meeting with American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei (AmCham Taipei) Chairman C.W. Chin on the morning of August 18, President Tsai Ing-wen stated that the Taiwan-US partnership continues to deepen with the signing of a bilateral memorandum of understanding (MOU) on health cooperation, while the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) has launched the Taiwan-U.S. Business Alliance. The president also expressed hope that a bilateral trade agreement (BTA) would allow Taiwan and the United States to capitalize on the complementarity of our industries, and bilateral economic and trade exchanges would be enhanced, creating more business opportunities and benefiting both sides.

A translation of the president's remarks follows:

I would like to welcome our friends from the AmCham Taipei to the Presidential Office. And I also want to congratulate Mr. Chin on having assumed his important new role as Chairman this January.

Since the beginning of this year, we have faced serious challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and changes to the global political and economic order. I would like to take this opportunity to thank AmCham Taipei for recognizing Taiwan's pandemic prevention efforts and for offering numerous economic and trade policy recommendations in its annual Taiwan White Paper published in June.

I understand that AmCham is paying close attention to our policies for revitalizing the tourism industry and is willing to help Taiwan attract more foreign visitors once border restrictions are eased. I would like to emphasize that we wholeheartedly welcome tourists and investment from abroad and hope AmCham Taipei will work with us in these areas.

As Chairman Chin has stated, Taiwan can leverage our pandemic prevention success to promote our sound business and investment environment. Over the past few years, Taiwan has made considerable improvements in this area. The US-China trade conflict and the latest developments in Hong Kong have created new challenges and opportunities for Taiwan's industries. We have set a goal of transforming Taiwan into Asia's center for enterprise capital management and high-end asset management.

In Business Environment Risk Intelligence's first assessment report of 2020, Taiwan rose to become the third-best country for investment worldwide. And recently, the US State Department listed the five major Taiwanese telecom providers as 5G Clean Telecommunications Companies.

Moving forward, we will focus our efforts on Six Core Strategic Industries including the ICT, digital, biotechnology, and medical technology industries, and have also established a Talent Circulation Alliance. These will help Taiwan become a critical force in the global economy and the US' most reliable ally in Asia as the United States faces the realignment of global supply chains.

The Taiwan-US partnership continues to deepen, and just last week we signed an MOU on health cooperation. In addition, TAITRA has launched the Taiwan-U.S. Business Alliance. With this exchange platform, we will be able to better utilize national resources to serve industries in both countries, and I am delighted that AmCham Taipei has also joined this initiative.

AmCham Taipei has always closely followed progress in discussions concerning a BTA between Taiwan and the United States. I would like to thank you once again for suggesting that the US government accelerate the process of negotiating such an agreement with Taiwan in your white paper this year.

I firmly believe that with a BTA, Taiwan and the United States would be able to capitalize on the complementarity of our industries. Enhancing economic and trade exchanges between Taiwan and the United States would also create more business opportunities, benefiting both sides.

We welcome AmCham Taipei's BTA recommendations and place great importance on all suggestions offered by AmCham Taipei members. I am delighted to exchange ideas with Chairman Chin and all of you today. Let's continue working together to deepen economic and trade relations between Taiwan and the United States.

AmCham Taipei President William Foreman was also present at the meeting.