TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – At a media luncheon held Wednesday noon, Catherine Nettleton, representative of British Office Taipei (BOT), said Taiwan’s import of Scotch Whisky surpassed US$2 million in 2016, making it the world's fourth-largest importer for the industry.
According to BOT, the U.K. is Taiwan’s third-largest trading partner in Europe, and bilateral trade has continued to grow over the years.
Nettleton said Taiwan was an important market for the U.K. and that both Taiwan and the U.K. had agreed to deepen bilateral trade and investment links in trade talks held last December in London.
“The talks came on the same day that Taiwan’s China Airlines’ new London to Taipei flight begins, re-establishing a direct route between the U.K. and Taiwan for the first time in 5 years – a sign of the potential for our economic ties to grow even stronger over the coming years,” added Nettleton .
In addition, a British delegation from both public and private sectors will visit Taipei later in March with the hope of boosting investments and trading cooperation between the two countries.
Nettleton said 17 companies and representatives from five U.K. local governments, namely Milton Keynes, Greenwich, Peterborough, Bristol, and West Lothian, would join the Smart City Summit & Expo from 27-30 March where they would share the expertise and innovation in smart city technology.
The second UK-Taiwan Smart City Forum with a focus on the development of connected and autonomous vehicles would also be held at the U.K.’s pavilion, added Nettleton.
Nettleton also said that looking ahead, innovation and technology would be important subjects with regard to the office's efforts to strengthen the U.K.’s engagement with Taiwan, particularly in such fields as FinTech, AI, and data-driven science and innovation.
