Taiwan News
Date: 2016-07-04
By: Wendy Lee, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
Foreign Minister David Lee said Monday that President Tsai Ing-wen will not make any more 
foreign visits this year due to a shortage of fund.
Tsai embarked on a nine-day trip on June 24 to Panama and Paraguay, two of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in Latin America, for the president’s first overseas official visit as the head of state since taking office on May 20.
Foreign Minister David Lee was at the Legislative Yuan Monday morning for a report on President Tsai’s foreign visit, and said that the visit has cost nearly NT$90 million. Former President Ma Ying-jeou, on the other hand, had spent about NT$60 million on his trip to Guatemala and Belize earlier this year.
The annual budget for presidential overseas state visits was exceeded by more than NT$30 million, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu concluded in the meeting. [FULL STORY]
