For the president and CEO of the Bank of Marshall Islands, working on the Marshall Islands is a God-given blessing.
The bank president is a Taiwanese man named Patrick Chen (
"The bank was so successful that the local government purchased it from me. But I still hold a majority of the bank's shares," said the 55-year-old businessman, who joined a cruise trip with visiting Taiwanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (簡又新) yesterday.
The Taiwanese Association in the Marshall Islands, consisting of about 80 Taiwanese businessmen based in the Marshall Islands, greeted Chien's delegation at the airport when they arrived in the country's capital Majuro yesterday morning.
Chen said although he felt bored in his first year on the islands, he has since discovered the country's beauty.
Blackouts and telecommunication failures were common for Chen in his initial years, but he gradually found the small nation to be a wonderful place.
"The air is clear and there is no pollution. There isn't much pressure, either. It's a place blessed by God and only people chosen by God can come here," Chen said.
As the Marshall Islands' population only numbers around 70,000, the country's commercial market is small.
"You cannot do big businesses here. But business opportunities still exist," Chen said.
"It is just because the population is small, there is not much competition here. As long as you work hard, you will certainly succeed here," Chen added.
Chen's wife, who worked in another bank in Taiwan when Chen first came to the island, asked Chen in the early years of his stay how he planned to keep the family together.
"She said it was such a pity to give up her job in Taiwan to join me in the Marshall Islands. I told her if she did not resign, she would lose her husband," laughed Chen, adding that his whole family now lived in the Marshall Islands and that they loved the country very much.
Taiwan also built and refurbished many government buildings in the Marshall Islands and is now planning to improve the country's fish breeding skills, the ambassador said.
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