Vice Premier receives EU deputy director-general for business and industry

Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun on Wednesday received Deputy Director-General Hubert Gambs of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW). The vice premier said that Taiwan-EU relations continue to deepen and expressed hope that, building on this existing foundation, both sides can work together to address future challenges in areas such as green and clean technologies, the circular economy, the establishment of democratic supply chains and the development of artificial intelligence (AI). She also thanked EU member states for their investments in Taiwan's offshore wind power and other renewable energy industries in recent years, and anticipates that these efforts will help Taiwan achieve its goal of sourcing 30% of its power from green energy by 2030.

Vice Premier Cheng further stated that through the Smart Taiwan 2.0 initiative under her leadership, as well as through President Lai Ching-te's policy of promoting Five Trusted Industry Sectors-semiconductors, AI, military, security and surveillance, and next-generation communications-Taiwan seeks to cooperate with like-minded nations to jointly establish safer and more resilient democratic supply chains.

In his remarks, Deputy Director-General Gambs said that Europe's experience with various crises in recent years, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war, underscores the need for the EU to build resilient supply chains. Taiwan is the EU's 13th largest trading partner, while the EU is Taiwan's 4th largest, and both sides are already collaborating in a wide range of fields, with the hope of further strengthening these ties for the benefit of people in both Taiwan and Europe.

He also commended Taiwanese enterprises for their strong innovative and technological capabilities, noting that the 2025 European Innovation Week is organized to foster partnerships between Taiwanese and European businesses and to deepen cooperation and exchanges across multiple fields. These include the energy transition to address climate change-such as wind and geothermal energy-and technological development aligned with President Lai's Five Trusted Industry Sectors.