The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) has named Shin Chi-chih (???) as its new envoy to the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, also known as Ivory Coast, as the ministry is preparing to reopen its representative office in the West African country soon, an MOFA official said Tuesday.

Wu Cheng-wei (???), deputy chief of MOFA’s Department of West Asian and African Affairs, said Shin, Taiwan’s former representative in Provence, France, had already arrived in the African country in late January to prepare for the reopening of the office following its closure in 2017.

Wu said the preparation for the office’s reopening was still ongoing without giving an estimated date for when it would be completed.

Shin, a graduate of Taipei-based Chinese Culture University’s French department, has previously served at Taiwan’s representative office in Paris, MOFA’s Department of West Asian and African Affairs, and as a minister at Taiwan’s embassy in Haiti, before being posted as Taiwan’s first envoy to head the representative office in Provence, France when it opened in 2020.

According to MOFA, since the Republic of China (ROC), Taiwan’s official name, and Ivory Coast ended official diplomatic relations in 1983, Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs had operated a Taiwan Economic Bureau in the West African country until January 2017.

MOFA said the office was shut due to concerns about business operations, but did not elaborate.

Since then, Taiwan’s Trade Office in Nigeria and its representative office in France had been jointly responsible for overseeing Taiwan’s affairs in Ivory Coast.

Taiwan and Ivory Coast reached an agreement last year to reopen the office that will be named “Bureau de Representation de Taipei en Côte d’Ivoire” in French and the “Taipei Representative Office in Ivory Coast” in English.

With an area of 320,000 square km, Ivory Coast has a population of nearly 26 million people.

It also has the fastest-growing economy in Africa, with GDP growth reaching 7.4 percent in 2017 and 6.9 percent in 2018, the ministry said, citing World Bank data.

The country is also rich in natural resources including cocoa, coffee, oil, and gold, making it a springboard for Taiwanese business ventures throughout the region, the ministry added.

The ROC only has one African nation among its 14 diplomatic allies, namely, the Kingdom of Eswatini.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel