Bryan traveled to Taiwan for Smart City Summit and trade office launch, Government House said

Government House said on March 27, 2023, that Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. was in Taiwan at the invitation of Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to advance U.S. Virgin Islands-Taiwan economic and cultural relations.

Communications Director Richard Motta Jr. said during the weekly Government House briefing that Bryan was scheduled to meet with Taiwanese government officials and private-sector representatives and attend the 2023 Smart City Summit & Expo with members of the territory's public and private sectors.

Government House said a central part of the trip was the planned opening of an Invest USVI Trade & Investments office in Taiwan, which it described as the first such office there. The office was to operate as a public-private partnership unit for the Virgin Islands government and private sector, with subsidies from the Taiwanese government to support operations in Taipei.

Government House said the U.S. Virgin Islands-Taiwan Economic & Cultural Affairs initiative was created in 2018 after the 2017 hurricanes. Bryan had originally been scheduled to visit Taiwan in 2020, but the trip was disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Separately, the Office of Management and Budget said it was continuing to distribute Social Security stipend checks with incomplete or incorrect mailing addresses. Residents who believed they were eligible but had not received a check were asked to check a list of names published the previous week and on March 27, 2023, in the Virgin Islands Daily News, and to submit their full name, last four digits of their Social Security number and complete mailing address to ssi@omb.vi.gov by April 7, 2023.

Government House also reported 17 active Covid-19 cases in the territory as of March 27, 2023, with no patients hospitalized at Juan F. Luis Hospital on St. Croix and two hospitalized at Schneider Regional Medical Center on St. Thomas. It said there had been 130 Covid-related deaths.

Official source: https://www.vi.gov/governor-bryan-leads-usvi-delegation-to-taiwan-for-2023-smart-city-summit-and-expo/