• 2018-11-23

On the afternoon of September 19, 2018, Representative Cheng Tai-hsiang of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Mission in Ankara, and Representative Murat Baklaci of the Turkish Trade Office in Taipei, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The signing ceremony was personally chaired by the director-general of Taiwan’s National Central Library (NCL), Ms. Tseng Shu-hsien. The agreement mainly advances future cooperation between the two countries’ national libraries across a broad range of areas, including knowledge and event information sharing, publication exchanges, collection digitization, ancient book restoration and preservation, staff exchanges, and joint academic research programs.

The National Library of Turkey boasts a rich a collection that includes biblical and Qur’anic manuscripts written over a thousand years ago. The library also houses documents and manuscripts from the Eastern Roman and Ottoman empires, providing excellent opportunities for manuscript exchanges. 

In her opening remarks, Director-General Tseng said that, with the signing of this MoU, she looked forward to deepening the exchanges between the two national libraries. In his own speech, Representative Chang Tai-hsiang mentioned that, in the past five years, Taiwan and Turkey had signed ten MoUs establishing areas cooperation between the two countries. He eagerly anticipated further academic exchanges between the two national libraries in future. Representative Murat Baklaci expressed how gratifying it was to witness the signing of the first cooperative MoU between Taiwan and Turkey of his term of office, while also wishing the two libraries well in developing a multifaceted partnership.