Deputy Minister Tien speaks at the event and wishes the 2023 Young Agricultural Ambassadors New Southbound Policy Exchange Program every success
 

Deputy Minister Tien presents a flag to the group of young agricultural ambassadors bound for Indonesia
 

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted the flag-presentation ceremony for the 2023 Young Agricultural Ambassadors New Southbound Policy Exchange Program on October 18. Presided over by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang and Deputy Minister of Agriculture Chen Tian-shou, the event was attended by Alice Q. Visperas, Deputy Resident Representative of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office; Sri Hartanti, Director of the Administration Department at the Indonesian Economic and Trade Office to Taipei; and Chang Yu-lin, Assistant Trade Representative at the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations, among others.

This year, 24 outstanding young agricultural ambassadors were selected and assigned to two groups. One group will travel to Indonesia at the end of October and the other to the Philippines in mid-November, each carrying out visits and exchanges.
 

Deputy Minister Chen presents a flag to the group of young agricultural ambassadors bound for the Philippines
 

Deputy Minister Tien and Deputy Minister Chen pose for a group photo with the 2023 cohort of young agricultural ambassadors
 

In his remarks at the ceremony, Deputy Minister Tien said that Taiwan’s close agricultural exchanges with Indonesia and the Philippines had yielded numerous flagship projects, citing the Modern Agriculture Demo Farm in Karawang and the Taiwan-Philippines Button Mushroom Demonstration Farm as examples. He believed the exchange program would help further connections between Taiwan’s agricultural talent and the wider world, expanding Taiwan’s innovation and strength in the agricultural sector.

Deputy Minister Chen encouraged the 24 members of the group to make the most of their talents, demonstrate dynamism and professionalism, and become a new force in the regional agricultural links between Taiwan and New Southbound Policy partner countries.
 

Deputy Minister Tien, Deputy Minister Chen, Assistant Trade Representative Chang, Deputy Resident Representative Visperas, and Director Hartanti pose for a group photo with the 2023 cohort of young agricultural ambassadors
 

Deputy Minister Tien and Deputy Minister Chen inspect a stand of agricultural goods produced by members of the 2023 cohort of young agricultural ambassadors
 

This year’s cohort of young agricultural ambassadors will engage in on-site visits to explore agricultural development and associated business opportunities in Indonesia and the Philippines, calling at local farms, fisheries, and animal husbandry facilities and conducting exchanges with local producers, officials, and academics. This will increase understanding of New Southbound Policy partner countries among a new generation of Taiwanese agriculturalists and advance substantive bilateral agricultural collaboration between Taiwan and Indonesia and the Philippines.

Since launching in 2017, the Young Agricultural Ambassadors New Southbound Policy Exchange Program has seen 90 young people with agricultural backgrounds visit the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and India for training and exchanges, generating fruitful results. Having been suspended from 2020 to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the program has resumed this year to continue to advance talent exchanges under the New Southbound Policy and deepen agricultural exchanges with New Southbound Policy partner countries. (E)