Premier Says Taiwan's Culinary Skill Boosts Image

Premier says Taiwan's culinary excellence helps boost nation's image

Premier Chang Chun-hsiung attended the opening ceremonies of the 2007 Taiwan Culinary Exhibition last week at the Taipei World Trade Center. In his remarks to the gathering, Premier Chang noted that Taiwan provides a wide range of fruits and vegetables during each season of the year.

Coupled with outstanding cooks and restaurant owners who have a high degree of creativity, Taiwan has the potential to become a "food capital". He said that the ingenuity of cooks and restaurateurs has helped promote consumer spending, which has in turn sparked profits for and increased the quality of Taiwan's agricultural and service sectors.

The premier said that Taiwan's achievements in this area make it more attractive to foreign tourists, which will help to raise the nation's image. He stated that in the future, Taiwan's culinary excellence will become an important national asset, helping put Taiwan on the global map.

Pointing out that this year is the 18th time that the Taiwan Culinary Exhibition is being held, Premier Chang stressed that the festival has not only marked a highlight of the food and beverage industry each year, it has also prompted sponsoring agencies to introduce new successful foods created in Taiwan, many of which end up becoming known throughout the world. The premier expressed his appreciation of the many people who have worked in the background to help Taiwan chalk up such achievements.

The premier said that Taiwan is already known as a "food heaven". According to the latest survey carried out by the Tourism Bureau, up to 54% of foreign tourists said that Taiwanese food played the key role in attracting them to the island. The results of the survey show that the Taiwanese food and beverage industry has enormous international development potential as well as a high degree of competitiveness.

Premier Chang stressed that as the government and the private sector enhance their cooperation on promoting Taiwanese food's charms, it is bound to attract more foreign tourists as well as renowned international chefs to take part in the international food competition held in Taiwan.

The premier welcomed an event of this sort as it is going to bring in more tourists as well as create more business opportunities for Taiwan. He believes that in the future when people around the world think of good food, Taiwan will immediately come to mind, and they will come to Taiwan for the food they dream of.

Following his remarks, Premier Chang and his wife Chu Ah-ying demonstrated their culinary talents. They made a series of dishes employing lychees, cobia and other well-known Taiwanese fruits and seafood. The master of ceremonies said that the dishes were not only tasty, but that the names of the dishes were quite propitious.

The premier then rang the gong to mark the opening of the World Chef Invitational Tournament, which included teams of chefs from the United States, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, China's Liaoning Province, southern Taiwan and northernTaiwan.

While outstanding dishes were being made throughout the exhibition hall, Premier Chang told a few stories, adding to happy mood of the event. The premier said that when he arrived at the exhibition hall, someone asked him, "Premier, the Executive Yuan presently does not include a Ministry of Food.

So which agency is responsible for holding today's culinary exhibition?" The premier replied that the culinary exhibition should be made up of a lot of different things and should include all kinds of foods.

Therefore, the culinary exhibition is certainly being hosted by Transportation and Communications Minister Tsai Duei. In Chinese, Minister Tsai's surname has the same sound as the word for "dish" or "course"; his first name pronounced as the word "pile." Put his surname and first name together, and it reflects a sound of the term of "piles of food."

ENDS

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