The government is to discontinue academic payments it makes to Sao Tomean students studying in Taiwan, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said yesterday, while National Chengchi University dismissed media reports that the son of Sao Tome and Principe President Evaristo Carvalho is a doctoral student at the school.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Javier Hou (侯清山) made the remarks at the legislature during a question-and-answer session with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應), who said that Carvalho’s son and daughter are enrolled at local universities and asked Hou if they would continue to receive payments issued according to the ministry’s Taiwan Scholarship program now that diplomatic ties have been severed.
“Should we continue to give them scholarship payments considering that their father has treated us so badly?” Tsai asked.
The ministry is likely to continue issuing payments to Sao Tomean students until the end of this academic year and cancel payments after that, Hou said.
Separately yesterday, the Ministry of Education said 68 Sao Tomean students attend universities or study Mandarin in Taiwan and 31 are covered by the scholarship.
Foreign students awarded the scholarship receive a monthly allowance of NT$25,000 (US$781), while those studying for a degree in higher education receive NT$30,000 per month, the education ministry said.
If students from Sao Tome and Principe cannot afford the tuition fees required to finish their education in Taiwan, they could apply for scholarships offered by their institutions, the education ministry said.
National Yang Ming University yesterday said that Carvalho’s daughter is a graduate student in her first semester at the school, while National Chengchi University said that Carvalho’s son was a doctoral student of information technology at the university, but he suspended his studies last year.
Sources said that Carvalho’s daughter is a recipient of the International Cooperation and Development Fund’s International Higher Education Scholarship, which usually pays student subsidies worth NT$1 million over two years.
Agencies have not yet decided whether they will continue issuing payments to Carvalho’s daughter, they said.
The wife of Sao Tome and Principe Ambassador to Taiwan Antonio Quintas do Espirito Santo is also a recipient of the Taiwan Scholarship.
Ming Chuan University said that Espirito’s wife is one of its students.
In related news, Taipei Medical University said that a seven-member medical team it sent to Sao Tome will be recalled.
The university, which operates Wan Fang Hospital that the medical team was drawn from, said all of the team members were well and ready to return home.
Three doctors, two nurses and two substitute service draftees were expected to return to Taiwan soon in collaboration with the foreign ministry, the university said.
In addition to the medical support Taiwan has extended to Sao Tome, other bilateral projects are to be terminated.
Among them is a technology center in the country’s Lemba District, the official opening of which was attended by Ambassador to Sao Tome and Principe Her Jian-gueng (何建功) on Dec. 8.
The center is the sixth of its kind established by Taiwan’s Institute for Information Industry.
The center was designed to help Sao Tome improve its telecommunications services.
Additional reporting by CNA
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