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(Adds German Economy Ministry declining comment)
TAIPEI, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Taiwan has sought Germany's help
in securing COVID-19 vaccines, Economy Minister Wang Mei-hua
said on Thursday, after Berlin asked for the island's assistance
in easing a shortage of automobile semiconductor chips.
Wang told reporters she made the request at a meeting with
Germany's de facto ambassador in Taipei, who handed her a letter
seeking help to resolve the shortage, which is hampering the
European nation's fledgling economic recovery from the pandemic.
At their meeting on Wednesday, Wang said, she told the head
of the German mission in Taipei that she hoped Germany could
"assist Taiwan in obtaining vaccines within the feasible range".
Germany's Economy Ministry declined comment.
In the letter, German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier asked
Wang to help persuade manufacturers in Taiwan, home to the
world's largest contract chipmaker and one of Germany's main
suppliers, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC)
, to ease the chip shortage.
Wang met senior chip executives this week who pledged to
help tackle the problem.
Late last month, Taiwan said it had agreed to buy almost 20
million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, including 10 million from
AstraZeneca Plc, with the first to start arriving from
March.
Another 4.76 million are expected to come from global
vaccine programme COVAX, but the government has given no details
of which company may supply the rest.
Pfizer Inc has jointly developed with Germany's
BioNTech SE one of the main vaccines which is now
being rolled out worldwide.
Countries are battling vaccine shortages worldwide.
Germany's health minister said on Thursday he expected the
current shortage to persist into April.
Taiwan has kept the pandemic well under control thanks to
early and effective prevention, with 896 cases, including seven
deaths. Most the infections have been imported from abroad and
only 79 people are now in hospital.
(Reporting by Jeanny Kao and Ben Blanchard; Additional
reporting by Michael Nienaber in Berlin; Editing by Toby Chopra)
