The Bilingual 2030 plan is critical for future generations of Taiwanese to compete economically, National Development Council Minister Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said in an interview published yesterday.
Taiwan’s bid to expand its global influence by growing core strategic industries is underpinned by linguistic capabilities that provide Taiwanese with an international perspective, he told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) in an exclusive interview.
As the country moves up the global supply chain and away from contract manufacturing, enterprises must prepare to become trailblazers in their respective sectors instead of following established trends, he said.
Photo: Chen Yi-ling, Taipei Times
The task of the country’s development can only be carried out through international cooperation, which requires an ability to communicate with other cultures, he said.
Additionally, the government must promote bilingual education in rural and remote parts of the country to avoid a widening social divide, given that English-language education provides social and economic advantages, he said.
The government is committed to democratizing and generalizing English-language fluency to maintain fairness in society, he said.
Asked if promotion of Mandarin-English bilingualism might detract from programs to support native-language education, Kung said that budgets to promote fluency in native languages surpass that of the Bilingual 2030 plan.
The NT$32 billion (US$994.16 million) budgeted to teach native languages should alleviate any such concerns, he added.
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