PM meets students in Taiwan

by Kenton Chance – TAIPEI, Taiwan 10.AUG.07

Vincentian students in Taiwan sat down to a dinner and a tete a tete with Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves last Saturday during his visit to this Asian country.{{more}}

The students, recipients of Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) scholarships, discussed with the prime minister their concerns about several happenings at home and other issues of national and regional significance.

The Prime Minister also responded to the students concerns about the challenges of the early implementation of universal access to secondary education, explaining that there was not much of an option.

He said there were talks of achieving this goal over a 20-year period, adding, “However, the students who are 12 now will not be 12, 20 years from now.”

Among other things, the Prime Minister also discussed with the students the relationship between personal responsibility and success, and the role of the family in society, the need to develop a post-colonial economy, and announced that his government had secured scholarships from Morocco and Turkey.

Dr Gonsalves was accompanied by his wife Eloise; Budget Director Edmund Jackson; Taiwan’s Ambassador to SVG Jack Cheng; security detail Inspector Christopher Benjamin; his son Storm and daughter Soleil.

He left Taipei for Malaysia on Sunday and is expected to return to Taiwan, visit the United States, Venezuela and Trinidad before returning home later this month.

There are about 13 Vincentian students studying here in Taiwan with an additional four expected to arrive later this month. In addition to having studied at least one year of Mandarin Chinese, the students are reading for degrees in fields including the natural and agricultural sciences, communication, business, design and diplomacy.