Taiwan minister visits RI

Taiwan minister visits RI

TAIPEI (AFP): Taiwan's Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Chih- kang left for Indonesia Monday for talks on bilateral cooperation in energy development.

Wang, whose delegation includes officials from the energy commission, the state-run Taiwan Power Company and Chinese Petroleum Corp., will attend an annual ministerial-level meeting due to start later Monday, officials said.

Taiwan Power and its Indonesian counterpart will sign a memorandum on technical cooperation, which "would bring positive effect to electricity and coal supplies in Taiwan" Wang said before his departure.

About 30 percent of coal and 60 percent of natural gas consumed in Taiwan comes from Indonesia.

Bilateral trade fell 27 percent in 1998 to 3.15 billion US dollars on the back of regional financial crisis.

Taiwan suffered a trade deficit of 1.05 billion dollars last year largely due to imports of crude oil, natural gas and coal from Indonesia.