A group of 98 Macedonians took part in the opening ceremony of a vocational training project yesterday, marking the first step in Taiwan helping the central European ally to train its personnel.
The ceremony was attended by Chang Chang-chih (
Welcoming the Macedonian members, Chang said that the ROC, like Macedonia, has experienced the pain of war and would like to share its development experience with other nations.
Although Macedonia is geographically distant from Taiwan, he believed the distance could be bridged through close cooperation.
He added that he hopes the training project will bring some benefits to Macedonia.
Loh, who is well-versed in several languages, greeted the Macedonian trainees in their own language, for which he received hearty applause.
Loh said that since the two nations established formal relations early this year, Taiwan has made great efforts, which have led to the possibility of the vocational training program.
He noted that although over 1,200 people have applied to take part in the training course and only 100 were finally able to come, he believes that there is still a chance for the remaining 1,100 to come.
He also spoke of the problems in working out the program, saying that Taiwan did not know what Macedonia wanted at the beginning, while Macedonia also had little idea of what it wanted.
The other problem is the language barrier, he said, adding that there is no one in Taiwan who speaks Macedonian and expressed concern that there would be communication problems between the instructors and trainees. However, he said he would try and overcome this problem.
The vocational training programs include computer processing, motor vehicle repair and maintenance and industrial electronics.
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