President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of October 9 with a delegation led by Republic of Honduras Vice President Ricardo Antonio Alvarez Arias and Mrs. Alvarez. In addition to expressing his gratitude to the guests for coming to the ROC to celebrate the ROC's Double Tenth National Day, the president also hopes for even deeper cooperative relations between the two countries.
In remarks, the president stated that Vice President Alvarez is an excellent politician, who earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in business management and business administration in the United States. After returning to Honduras, he began serving in public office, having served as a city councilor in the capital of Tegucigalpa, a member of the National Congress, the secretary-general of the ruling party, former President Ricardio Maduro Joest's private secretary, chairman of the ruling party, and two terms as mayor of Tegucigalpa. In 2014, he ran together with current President Juan Orlando Hernandez and won the election. Vice President Alvarez is an outstanding political talent, President Ma said.
President Ma said that President Hernandez, with the assistance of Vice President Alvarez, has made internal reforms, infrastructure construction, and combating corruption key portions of his agenda. The measures implemented have been welcomed by the public, along with businesses from many countries that are operating in Honduras, including the ROC. In July of this year, President Hernandez led a delegation to the ROC for the first time in an effort to strengthen cooperation with the ROC, and the visit was extremely meaningful, President Ma said.
The president noted that the alliance between the ROC and Honduras dates back 74 years and that the two countries have maintained close cooperation in a wide range of areas. In the area of education and culture, for example, the ROC each year, under its Taiwan Scholarship Program, provides scholarships to 30 outstanding Honduran students, assisting them in coming to Taiwan to study in degree programs. A total of 11 Honduran military students are presently studying in Taiwan, while six students from the ROC are studying at military academies in Honduras. Two other Honduran students are also studying at the School of Medicine for International Students here.
President Ma stressed that the ROC has consistently cooperated with its allies and hopes to act in the international community as a "provider of humanitarian aid". In recent years, the ROC has donated ambulances, along with vehicles used for official, military, and police business in Honduras. The ROC is also supporting the construction of a military history museum in that country and the modernization of military hardware factories, while at the same time assisting in the establishment of a regional training and learning center at the humanitarian assistance command service. In addition, the ROC this past March transferred three helicopters to Honduras and expects to provide a fourth one before the end of this year to help assist the Central American nation in combatting crime and in emergency rescue operations.
The president then stated that in September of 2014 the ROC assisted Honduras in purchasing urgently needed medical and health supplies, alleviating their shortage of medical resources. In light of the El Nino weather pattern that impacted diplomatic partners in Central America last year and led to poor crops and shortages of staple foods, the ROC also immediately assisted Honduras in fighting its drought and providing food relief. The president hopes that all of these moves will strengthen bilateral cooperation, thereby effectively reducing the impact of natural disasters on the Honduran public. These moves have fulfilled the ROC's goal of being a provider of humanitarian aid in the international community, he said.
The president also discussed the One Town One Product (OTOP) project that the ROC has introduced in Honduras to assist that country in developing industries with local characteristics. For instance, last year when he visited Honduras, the president was accompanied by Honduran former Vice President Maria Antonieta Guillen de Bogran to Valle de Angeles, a famous tourist city, where they took part in a pottery-making activity at a model store, bearing witness to the success of the bilateral cooperation. On September 3 of this year, the model store was completed and opened in Valle de Angeles, and the Honduran government is planning on expanding the OTOP project to other places in the country. The president said he is deeply pleased to learn of the success of this project.
President Ma reiterated his gratitude to the Honduran government for speaking on behalf of the ROC in international venues, supporting our participation in international organizations and activities such as the International Civil Aviation Organization, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the World Health Assembly. He also called for continued strengthening of bilateral cooperation.
The delegation also included the members of the Honduran National Congress Juan Carlos Valenzuela Molina, Cesar Enrique Handal Fernandez, and Gerardo Tulio Martinez Pineda.