President William Lai (賴清德) and a visiting US Department of State official yesterday marked the 85th anniversary of a US government-funded professional exchange program, highlighting its role in strengthening Taiwan-US ties through people-to-people engagement.
In a pre-recorded message played at a ceremony in Taipei for the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), Lai said that he was an IVLP alumnus, having joined the program in 2004 when he was a lawmaker.
Thanks to the program, he was able to travel to the US, where he witnessed firsthand the vitality and resilience of the US democratic system, Lai said.
Photo: Huang Chin-hsuan, Taipei Times
Over the past eight-and-a-half decades, the program has helped cultivate countless Taiwanese leaders across all sectors and has become an important platform for international exchange, he said, adding that these alumni continue to play a key role in strengthening Taiwan-US relations.
Ragini Gupta, director of Press and Public Diplomacy at the state department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, described the IVLP as the department’s “most significant exchange program.”
“Taiwan is a vital part of IVLP’s global story,” she said. “Leaders from Taiwan return energized to deepen US-Taiwan cooperation in health, education, technology and democratic governance. In turn, Americans gain a richer understanding of Taiwan’s dynamism.
Photo: CNA
“These people-to-people ties make our policy cooperation stronger and our shared future brighter,” she said.
American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene announced at the event that the AIT would launch a series of events across Taiwan through July 4 next year to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the US Declaration of Independence.
The IVLP “builds long-term relationships between Americans and international leaders in government, business, academia and other fields through short-term professional exchanges that strengthen American communities,” the state department said.
Since its launch in 1940, more than 230,000 participants have taken part in the program, including more than 500 future heads of state or government, 12 Nobel laureates, more than 1,600 Cabinet ministers and more than 1,000 members of parliament, the program introduction said.
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