Thaindian News

Kochi March 3 (IANS) Taiwan, which has established trade and technical collaboration with various Indian states in recent times, Wednesday expressed keen interest to put Kerala on a priority list for collaboration.
Philip Wen-Chyi Ong, ambassador of Taiwan to India, told reporters here: “The focus in Kerala would be on seafood, IT and English teachers to begin with. Though Taiwan is a highly literate republic, its medium of education was largely Chinese language and is now planning to give equal emphasis to English medium.”

“To strengthen this area, it was looking for English teachers and Kerala was one of the regions from where it could find suitable hands,” said Wen-Chyi Ong, who is on a three-day visit to the state, beginning Wednesday.

In spite of the fact that Taiwan is smaller than Kerala in terms of geographical area, its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is 11 times higher than Kerala’s.

“Taiwan had relaxed visa restrictions for Indians in order to promote more business and tourist traffic between the countries and said its educational expenses on foreign students were far cheaper as compared to western countries. Therefore, Indian students could now look to the east instead of the west,” the envoy said.

India-Taiwan bilateral trade, which is estimated at $5.3 billion, accounting for one per cent of Taiwan’s total foreign trade at present, is set to grow tremendously in the next five years.

Wen-Chyi Ong is accompanied by David Hsu, director of economic division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre, New Delhi.