April 12, 2016
No. 092
Yves Albarello, a member of the French National Assembly, will lead a four-member delegation from the French National Assembly and French Senate to visit Taiwan from April 12 to 15, 2016 at the invitation of the ROC government. This visit will give delegation members the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the ROC’s efforts at environmental protection, energy conservation, and carbon reduction, the nation’s clean-energy industry, political and economic developments, as well as cross-strait relations, and will facilitate bilateral cooperation in the future.
In addition to attending a banquet hosted by Vice Foreign Minister Leo Chen-jan Lee, the delegation will also call on President of the Legislative Yuan Su Jia-chyuan, as well as meet with ranking officials of the Environmental Protection Administration, the Mainland Affairs Council, as well as the headquarters of the Kuomintang and the Democratic Progressive Party, and visit the Industrial Technology Research Institute, the Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy, the National Palace Museum, Taipei 101, nongovernmental organizations, and environmental protection and clean-energy firms.
Mr. Albarello and Mr. Sauveur Gandolfi-Scheit are members of the National Assembly’s Taiwan-France Friendship Group; both visited Taiwan in 2007. This marks the first visit for Senators Mr. Louis-Jean de Nicolaÿ and Mr. Cyril Pellevat. Mr. Gandolfi-Scheit is a member of the national defense commission; the other delegation members are all on the sustainable development commission.
In recent years, the ROC and France have enjoyed frequent exchanges and cooperation in trade, technology, culture, and the arts. In terms of trade, France is the ROC’s fourth-largest trade partner in Europe; bilateral trade amounted to US$4.03 billion in 2015. As well, France is one of the ROC’s most important technological cooperation partners in Europe and worldwide. With regard to culture and the arts, the Taiwan-France Cultural Award co-founded by the ROC Ministry of Culture and the Institute of France has become a recognized honor. Looking ahead, Taiwan and France will continue to strengthen bilateral relations on the basis of existing close exchanges. (E)