Trade, technology, bring Taiwan, Slovenia closer to formal ties

Taipei/Taiwan – As Taiwan eyes potential in Slovenia and further economic and trade cooperation with the East European nation, questions about the possibility of official representation and the sending of Slovene diplomatic missions to Taiwan have arisen.

Joanne Ou, Spokesperson of Taiwan’s foreign ministry, said that Taiwan is adamant about engaging with “like-minded” countries in various fields and nurturing cooperation.

Marcin Jerzewski, who is a political analyst, said that even though the two-way trade has increased notably between the two countries, there remain certain limitations that prevent the two countries from leveraging the full potential they have to offer.

Those limitations are mostly focused on the fact that they cannot establish diplomatic missions due to the sensitive China-Taiwan situation, as Jerzewski said that if those obstacles were to be bypassed, trade could expand to include high-value products and areas of artificial intelligence.

“Taiwanese export to Slovenia increased by over 50%. And Taiwanese imports from Slovenia increased by 25%. And even though these dynamics exist amid trade, which is limited in volume, they point to the reasons behind the exchange of representatives between the two countries,” Jerzewski said.

For him, there is a tremendous potential for greater collaboration in high-tech, in economic relations, in terms of both trade and investments, with regards to both high value-added products, such as Artificial Intelligence, highly-specialized robots and, semi-conductors that everyone seems to be eyeing.

“Whenever we talk about China and each of the 27 EU member states, we have to remember that the negative consequences will be suffered not only by the one particular country but by EU’s 27 states as a whole. Therefore, what is happening in Lithuania will serve as an important test for European unity and the European Union’s ability to effectively counter secondary sanctions, to effectively counter coercion vis-à-vis its members,” researcher Jerzewski added.

According to Chen Kuan-ting, CEO for Next Generation Taiwan, said that Taiwan has all the necessary capacities but its land and electricity are limited. He suggested moving manpower, know-how, and capital to European countries.

“In the past few years, China has been imposing trade barriers to countries such as Australia and countries friendly to Taiwan and giving a hard time to those countries. But I have to emphasize that this is a wrong approach. This will only show Central and Eastern European countries that China is being irrational,” said analyst Chen Kuan-ting.