The 2017 Taiwan Higher Education Fairs kicked off Aug. 26 in Indonesia, highlighting the government’s commitment to enhancing academic exchanges with the Southeast Asian nation, according to the Ministry of Education.

Supported by the MOE and co-organized by nonprofit organizations Taiwan Education Center Indonesia and Ikatan Citra Alumni Taiwan Indonesia Sumatra Utara, the fairs were slated to take place in the cities of Jakarta and Medan as well as Aceh province Aug. 26, Aug. 27-28 and Aug. 29-30, respectively.

The event in Jakarta was attended by MOE Deputy Minister Yao Leehter, who said that Taiwan is looking to increase the number of Indonesian students studying in the nation to 10,000 over the next three years.

During the 2016 academic year, more than 5,000 Indonesian students attended university-level classes in Taiwan, marking a 14 percent annual increase. This makes the Southeast Asian nation the second largest source of international students to Taiwan, behind Malaysia, out of all New Southbound Policy target countries, the minister said.

According to Yao, Taiwan currently offers a number of programs and scholarships to encourage students from South and Southeast Asia to pursue tertiary education in the nation. The minister cited as an example the Ministry of Foreign Affairs-administered Taiwan Scholarship, which was offered to 35 Indonesian students for the 2017 academic year, more than double that of the previous schoolyear.

Yao said that by encouraging more students to study in Taiwan, such programs are helping establish people-to-people connections as well as foster opportunities for joint research and collaborative projects.

The annual education fairs in Indonesia, which began in 2012, will likely see over 8,000 visitors this year, with 4,500 having already attended the Jakarta event, the MOE said. A total of 50 Taiwan tertiary institutions are participating in the Jakarta and Medan events, while 26 are taking part in the Aceh fair.

A key plank of President Tsai Ing-wen’s national development strategy, the New Southbound Policy aims to deepen Taiwan’s ties with the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states, six South Asian countries, Australia and New Zealand in areas spanning agriculture, business, culture, education, tourism and trade. (KWS-E)

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