Thirty agriculture students and others involved in the sector are soon to visit Thailand and India as young agricultural ambassadors to help Taiwan build closer ties with those countries.
The 30 ambassadors, chosen from 117 candidates, recently completed a three-day training program and were given a send-off at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday. They are to leave in separate groups in the middle of this month.
The ministry, which co-sponsors the program with the Council of Agriculture (COA), would not give their exact dates of departure.
It said that participants would tour agricultural establishments and farms and visit academic institutions, industry players and agricultural officials during their trips, but gave no further details.
The participants said they have different motivations for taking part in the agricultural ambassador program.
Chang Wei-jan (張威然), a member of the group heading to India and an air force pilot who became involved in agriculture after retiring, said he is looking for new partnerships and hopes to build substantive exchanges between the two sides.
Lin Ni-jung (林妮蓉), a university student who is going to Thailand, said that she is hoping to build mutual understanding between Taiwan and Thailand at a time when Taiwan is promoting an Agriculture 4.0 initiative while Thailand is pushing its Royal Projects.
The Young Agricultural Ambassadors program, open to people aged 18 to 40, was launched in 2017 in line with the New Southbound Policy to build ties with Southeast and South Asia and reduce Taiwan’s economic dependence on China.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉), COA Deputy Minister Chen Junne-jih (陳駿季) and Phubadi La-Or-ngern, deputy executive director of the Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei, attended the send-off ceremony.
Hsu encouraged the ambassadors to learn from the countries they are visiting.
The program has been running for three years.
Five ambassadors from the first group have since been named among Taiwan’s Top 100 Young Farmers, and many members of the second group signed cooperation agreements in Vietnam, Chen said.
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