An agricultural internship program between Taiwan and the Philippines yesterday began, with 50 farmers expected to be sent to Taiwan for one year after completing a basic Mandarin course.
“The internship program is the first between the Philippines and Taiwan,” Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) Chairman Angelito Banayo said.
The program “is expected to further deepen the pragmatic relations between the Philippines and Taiwan, especially at a time when exchanges between most countries in the world are greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Banayo said.
The program fulfills a memorandum of understanding signed between MECO and its counterpart in the Philippines, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO), in Manila late last year.
In the Philippines, 50 young male and female farmers from across the nation participated in an orientation program for the project and are to start their basic Mandarin classes online today, in preparation for their deployment to Taiwan in June.
The Mandarin classes are to be facilitated by TECO.
“Thank you for the opportunity of this internship. It gives us a chance to serve our country through food production,” said Rendale Ragas, one of the interns.
After arriving in Taiwan, the interns are to be accommodated in housing or facilities prepared by host farmers, and learn about local farming skills and technologies through classroom and field work, including crop planting and animal husbandry.
The interns are expected to stay in Taiwan for one year and are to receive allowances from their hosts throughout their stay.
Banayo said he believed the interns would learn a lot in Taiwan, praising the nation for being able to export excellent produce, despite the limited available arable land.
The farmers, selected by Philippine agriculture authorities, were supposed to depart for Taiwan last month, but this was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Taiwan and the Philippines enjoy healthy cooperation in the agricultural sector. Aside from educational exchanges, agricultural cooperation meetings have been held annually between high-level officials from the two sides since 2005.
In July 2019, a demonstration mushroom farm was established in the northern Philippines as a result of bilateral cooperation to teach local farmers mushroom cultivation skills and explore export opportunities for Taiwan’s agricultural equipment and materials.
STAY AWAY: An official said people should avoid disturbing snakes, as most do not actively attack humans, but would react defensively if threatened Taitung County authorities yesterday urged the public to stay vigilant and avoid disturbing snakes in the wild, following five reported snakebite cases in the county so far this year. Taitung County Fire Department secretary Lin Chien-cheng (林建誠) said two of the cases were in Donghe Township (東河) and involved the Taiwan habus, one person was bit by a Chinese pit viper near the South Link Railway and the remaining two were caused by unidentified snakes. He advised residents near fields to be cautious of snakes hiding in shady indoor areas, especially when entering or leaving their homes at night. In case of a
A tropical disturbance off the southeastern coast of the Philippines might become the first typhoon of the western Pacific typhoon season, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The system lacks a visible center and how it would develop is only likely to become clear on Sunday or Monday, the CWA said, adding that it was not yet possible to forecast the potential typhoon's effect on Taiwan. The American Meteorological Society defines a tropical disturbance as a system made up of showers and thunderstorms that lasts for at least 24 hours and does not have closed wind circulation.
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
RSS