Hawaii leaders visit Taiwan for weeklong trade, cultural exchange

TAIPEI, TAIWAN (HawaiiNewsNow) – A delegation of Hawaii lawmakers led by Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke are in Taipei to discuss opportunities to support our sister-state relationship which marks 31 years.
Ahead of their visit, Hawaii News Now’s Annalisa Burgos was among 20 international journalists in Taiwan’s capital city as part of a week-long press tour. The group met President Ching-te Lai, foreign minister Chia-lung Lin and other government and business leaders, discussing everything from Taiwan’s relations with China to its multi-billion dollar semiconductor industry to military cooperation with the U.S.
The journalists also visited the Presidential Office and attended the island’s 113th National Day celebration.
Hawaii has an office in the Taipei World Trade Center that focuses on boosting trade, educational and cultural exchanges, and investment.
“They are exchanges between different sectors, cultural, also green energy and also agriculture. We know we like to explore more made-in-Hawaii products in Taiwan,” said Alex Lei, executive director of the Hawaii office in Taiwan.
“We continue to lobby for airlines to resume a direct flight from Taipei to Honolulu, and hopefully next year, 2025 we hope China airlines will start will resume direct flight without a direct flight is difficult to promote tours. But at the moment, Taiwanese travel to Hawaii can be Tokyo, Korea or Philippines, but transit is a lot of headaches.”
DBEDT says direct flights are key to boosting not only tourism, but bringing more students, cargo and investment to Hawaii.
There have been no direct flights since the pandemic.
Before COVID travel restrictions, Hawaii saw about 50,000 visitors from Taiwan each year.
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