Conference to push for EU visa-waiver program

Taipei, Jan. 19 (CNA) An international conference will be held to brief European officials on Taiwan's push for an European visa-waiver program, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Tuesday.

The conference is being organized to help officials from the European Union (EU) understand more about the process of passport issuance and management in Taiwan as well as the issuance of electronic passports, said Chiu Jong-jen, director-general of MOFA's Department of European Affairs.

"We would like to say that an EU visa-waiver program for Taiwan poses no risk at all, " Chiu said.

Visa officers from countries which have offered visa-free treatment to Taiwan, including South Korea, Japan, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Ireland and New Zealand, will attend the Feb. 8 conference, Chiu said.

The conference will be titled "Towards Broader Visa Liberalization for Taiwan Passport Holders: A Workshop." Hungarian parliamentarian Zsolt Nemeth said during his visit to Taiwan last week that Hungary, which will take over EU's rotating presidency in January 2011, supports granting visa-free treatment to Taiwanese passport holders.

Taiwan has worked toward a Schengen visa-free program for years as well as similar visa-waiver treatment in the U.S. and Canada.

Hungarian MP foresees breakthrough year of bilateral relations

Taipei, Jan. 13 (CNA) Hungary is keen to further develop its relations with Taiwan and is looking to have a breakthrough year in bilateral trade, a visiting Hungarian member of parliament told the Central News Agency.

Zsolt Nemeth, chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Hungarian Parliament, said he expects Hungary to be "the first country in central Europe to sign agreements with Taiwan on avoidance of double taxation and investment protection." Nemeth, who is in the middle of a four-day visit to Taiwan along with two other Hungarian MPs, also expected Taiwan to lift its ban on the import of Hungarian agriculture products, especially poultry, this year after they were suspended following a bird flu outbreak in Europe three years ago.

Negotiations on investment protection and double taxation avoidance agreements are in their "final phase, " he said, and once they take effect, they will benefit bilateral trade and investment.

One of the heavyweights in the Hungarian main opposition Fidesz, Nemeth said his center-right party is favored to win the upcoming election in April and form a new government, which is scheduled to take over the rotating presidency of the European Union in January 2011.

Hungary will place Asia high on its foreign policy and trade agenda because it "has a growing interest in the Asia region, " which was why the foreign affairs committee visited Japan, China and South Korea last year and arranged a similar visit this year.

Taking over the EU presidency, Hungary would like to support initiatives that would bring Europe and Asia closer, said the 46-year-old Nemeth.

Among them, he said, Hungary is in favor of visa-free treatment of Taiwan passport holders because it would help boost tourism. Some 15,000 Taiwanese visited Hungary in 2009.

Meanwhile, the Hungarian government is trying to implement wide-ranging incentives and safeguards, including tax breaks and legal frameworks, to encourage foreign companies such as Taiwan's Hon Hai Group -- which Nemeth said is "doing very well in Hungary" -- to invest in the central European country.

"Basically I'm satisfied with Taiwan-Hungary relations," he said.

"But I see a broad and vast opportunity in the future so that we should keep the momentum going forward, " said Nemeth, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time.

Commenting on cross-Taiwan Strait relations, Nemeth said that if Taiwan is able to sign a trade agreement with China, it "will be an important breakthrough in your international relations" and "a milestone of cross-strait relations." Nemeth was "impressed" by the number of flights that now exist between Taiwan and China as well as the approach of Taiwan's government to relax tensions.

"These kinds of economic focuses, steps and processes are very encouraging, " he said.

"The history of EU is reflecting the same approach. We have in Europe historical tensions... but the whole idea of the EU stemmed from the idea of 'let's do business together,'" he said, referring to the European Coal and Steel Community formed in the early 1950s.

"Accepting a one-China policy is one thing, " he went on, "but trying to secure the interests of Taiwan's people is another." As for the future, "it's up to Taiwanese people to decide about their future, " he said.

The Fidesz MPs accompanying Nemeth on the trip are Arpad Gogl, a former health minister, and Andras Kelemen, who once served as deputy foreign minister.

More countries look to woo Taiwanese tourists

Taipei, Dec. 14 (CNA) More countries are looking to woo Taiwanese tourists as outbound tourism continues to grow, said travel representatives from various countries at an international travel fair Friday.

"The reason is clear. Almost half of your [Taiwan's] population at least made a trip overseas last year, " Robert Young, a staff in Hungarian Trade Office in Taipei, spoke about Taiwan's tourism potential.

Hungary was among seven new presenters at the 2007 Taipei International Travel Fair taking place from Dec. 14-17 with 62 participating countries at the annual event. Other first-timers are Nauru, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu, the Solomon Islands and Greece.

According to statistics released by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) in November, the number of outbound Taiwanese tourist trips reached 7.68 million between January and October this year.

"Currently 15,000 Taiwanese tourists visit Hungary every year, and we're targeting 25,000," Young said, adding that negotiations on direct flights between Taiwan and Budapest is ongoing and hopefully a deal will be reached next year.

The Czech Republic has been trying to attract not only Taiwanese investment but tourists as well. Of 30,000 visitors last year, most of them were businessmen, CzechTourism representative Lucie Turkova said, adding that as bilateral trade and investment increase, tourism is also expected to boom and that's why they're here.

Travel agencies have also changed with the times and are going with the latest trends. In the past, most Taiwanese tourists wanted to visit as many countries and spots as possible, but that is no longer the case, said Mathias Hultgren, who represents the Swedish travel agency Scandinavian Perspectives Taiwan.

"Travel plans in the past basically excluded young people because only senior citizens were able to enjoy a two to three weeks trip, " Hulgren said. About 50,000 Taiwanese tourists visited Sweden last year, he said.

Agencies are also employing different strategies to attract Taiwanese tourists. Hultgren said their main target was those who have been to Europe but never visited Scandinavia, and people who are interested in seeing a different part of Europe.

"How many [Taiwanese] people visit Toronto every year? " Hultgren said, adding that Taiwanese have had the misconception that Sweden was too far away for an affordable trip, but the distance between Taipei and Stockholm is about the same as that between Taipei and Toronto.

As usual, Japan took up the most booths, 66 in all, although representatives from Hong Kong and Macao also made their presence felt at the fair.

DGBAS statistics showed that Hong Kong, Japan and Macao were the top three destinations for outbound Taiwanese tourists this year.

Different cases of transitional justice examples for Taiwan

Taipei, July 28 (CNA) Scholars and officials from various countries shared their experience in advancing transitional justice, which became a popular term in Taiwan in recent years, with their counterparts from Taiwan in an international conference Saturday.

The "International Conference on the Comparative Studies of Transitional Justice" gathered participants from Germany, Hungary, Mongolia and Hungary, including former Prime Minister of East Germany Lother de Maiziere with a focus on the handling of illegally-gained party assets.

Maiziere explained in his speech how former East Germany worked on a full-scale transformation on various fronts after overcoming the communist dictatorship and the unification of Germany. One of the most important steps was the liquidation of the assets of the Socialist Unity Party (SED), former East Germany ruling party.

Transitional justice is more than handling party assets, he said. Maziere also went on details about how Germany re-established traditional provinces, which were abolished during the communist era, worked on judiciary transformation, reviewed the criminal and civil law, reviewed the sentences of all prisoners, and re-organized the police force.

The same effort could also be found in Poland, said Lo Chih-cheng, a professor at Soochow University. The success of transitional justice in a number of Eastern European countries came from positive dialogues between the opposition and the ruling parties, he said.

The transition in Poland was initiated by a compromise, negotiated in a round table by members of the state party PZPR and the democratic opposition, said Andrea Genest, a research fellow at the Center for Research of Contemporary History Potsdam.

The handling off the former Hungarian communist ruling party HSWP (Hugarian Socialist Workers' and Peasants' Party) has not been very successful as there was no overall settlement, said Krisztian Ungvary, advisor of Hungarian Ministry for Culture and Education.

In Mongolia, a country that has been trying to walk out of the shadow from the former Soviet Union since it declared independence, the focus has been placed on the privatization of state properties, said Nemekhbayar Dashbaljir, an officer of Mongolia's State Property Committee.

The one-day conference, which was organized by Taiwan Thinktank, discussed the theme of transitional justice in three sessions on the global experience in dealing with party assets and the interdependent relationship between transitional justice and democratization.