Taiwan and Thailand on Saturday signed an agreement on agricultural technical cooperation to resume extensive agricultural collaboration that has slowed over the past six years.
In the absence of diplomatic ties, the agreement was signed by the International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF), the principal body administering Taiwan’s development projects abroad, and the Royal Project Foundation of Thailand.
Prince Bhisatej Rajani, a distant cousin of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, expressed his gratitude to Taiwan, saying that because of Taiwan’s assistance in agricultural technology, Thailand could now sell vegetables to Taiwan.
Bilateral cooperation can be traced back to 1969, ICDF deputy secretary-general Lee Pai-po (李柏浡) said, recalling when Taiwan sent agricultural experts at the request of the Thai royal family to help farmers in northern Thailand, stop growing opium and start planting vegetables and fruit.
Starting in 1970, a permanent technical team was stationed in northern Thailand, and the scheme was expanded over the years to include tea, flowers, mushrooms and organic products, Lee said.
Taiwanese and Thai agricultural authorities signed an official cooperation agreement in 2004, but achievements were not as good as in the previous 34 years, Lee said, which is why the two sides decided to resume extensive exchanges.
The new agreement, which goes into effect on Jan. 1, aims to include additional items, such as oranges and strawberries, he said.
Cooperation with Thailand has special significance in Taiwan because, in addition to helping the Southeast Asian country develop its agriculture, it has helped hundreds of “war orphans” residing in northern Thailand.
These are descendants of Chinese soldiers who retreated into the area after Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government lost the Chinese Civil War to the Chinese Communist Party in the late 1940s.
“The program has been able to help with their employment and well-being. Some of them had also grown opium for a living in the past,” Lee said.
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