THE mayor of the Greater Oudtshoorn, Chris Macpherson, and the deputy mayor, Gavin Juthe, held talks last week with a delegation from the Taipei South African Liaison Office based in Cape Town, to revitalise a relationship that Oudtshoorn had with Taiwan many years ago.
Macpherson and Juthe met on 8 March with David Yontso Lin, director general, Douglas Chang, first assistant director, and William Wang, second assistant director, in George.
“The purpose of our meeting was to revisit the relationship we once had with Taipei and attract investment into the Greater Oudtshoorn,” Macpherson said.
“Now is the time to re-establish the links with a municipality in Taipei and see to which extent we can partner for the development of cultural, educational and economical international relations.”
According to the Taipei Liaison Office diplomatic ties between the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the Republic of South Africa were terminated in January 1998. After negotiations, however, the two countries set up liaison offices in the respective countries.
The Taipei Liaison Office consists of political, consular, economic, information and service co-ordination divisions in South Africa. These divisions serve to promote economic, trade, cultural, educational, scientific, financial, and other exchanges and encourage co-operation between Taiwan and South Africa.
“We intend to set up meetings to, amongst others, discuss in detail possible student exchanges.
“This relationship can be economically beneficial for the Greater Oudtshoorn,” Macpherson added.
Mayor initiates talks for possible relationship with Taiwan
Front from left are William Wang) second assistant director, Taipei Liaison Office), Chris Macpherson (Executive Mayor of the Greater Oudtshoorn), David Yontso Li (director general, Taipei Liaison Office), Gavin Juthe (Deputy Executive Mayor of the Greater Oudtshoorn) and Douglas Chang (first assistant director, Taipei Liaison Office).