President Ma Ying-jeou and Vice President Wu Den-yih met with a delegation led by Belize Governor-General Colville Young on the evening of May 12. The president updated the visitors on the wide range of cooperation and interaction between the ROC and Belize, and also stated his hope for a long-lasting alliance and friendship between the two countries.
In remarks, the president said that he visited Belize in 2009, where he received a warm reception by the Belize government. During that visit, he had the opportunity to hold in-depth discussions with Governor-General Young and Prime Minister Dean Barrow on matters of mutual interest. The president remarked that he is delighted to again meet with Governor-General Young.
The president stated that Governor-General Young is extremely knowledgeable in a number of fields, quite congenial and approachable, and has been especially popular among the people of Belize since he began serving as governor-general in 1993. Governor-General Young is an educator, writer, and musician, and has a profound understanding of music and literature, the president commented.
The president also mentioned that accompanying Governor-General Young on this trip is Minister of Energy, Science & Technology and Public Utilities Audrey Joy Grant, who has made considerable contributions in the field of environmental protection. In addition to having served as the executive director of the non-profit organization Programme for Belize as well as a member of the executive leadership team and the managing director of the Atlantic Conservation and Management Region of the US-based The Nature Conservancy, she was also Belize's ambassador to the European Union, the World Trade Organization, Belgium, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and France. Minister Grant is currently responsible for Belize's science and technology development and energy policies. Over the years, she has provided considerable assistance to the ROC in its efforts to participate in the World Health Organization and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the president said.
The president pointed out that Taiwan and Belize established diplomatic relations in 1989 and enjoy a stable alliance despite the geographic distance between the two. In 2012, Belize began granting ROC nationals visa-free courtesies, becoming the 131st nation in the world to do so. This, the president said, has helped to further boost bilateral interaction.
The president commented that starting in 1991, the ROC and Belize began promoting a variety of agricultural cooperation projects, covering horticulture, seed rice, and citrus greening disease prevention. The president said he still vividly remembers that the local cuisine he enjoyed during his 2009 visit to Belize was all made of locally grown rice. Meanwhile, as of 2014 a total of 258 outstanding students from Belize had come to Taiwan to pursue bachelors, masters, and PhD degrees. Over 100 of these students have already returned home and are contributing what they learned in Taiwan, while 81 students from Belize are still studying here. The two countries also jointly promote the International Youth Ambassadors Exchange Program with the hope of enhancing interaction and exchanges among youth.
As for security cooperation, the president said that the ROC and Belize have maintained interaction in the training of police, military personnel, and national security officers in an effort to jointly combat crime. The two countries also engage in cooperation in medicine and healthcare, with Belize having dispatched personnel to Taiwan for training since 2010, effectively helping to boost the quality of its medical personnel. In addition, the ROC in 2013 and 2014 sent a Kidney Disease Prevention Capability Building Identification Mission to Belize for medical fact-finding. Bilateral cooperation also extends to the ICT sector, with the Belize government in December last year having purchased 9,000 tablet computers from Taiwan's ASUS. A tablet was presented as a gift to each university and high school graduate. The two countries are jointly working to improve computer labs at schools in Belize and to provide free Internet access at a park in each city in that nation to help boost the public's ability to access and utilize information.
The president mentioned that ICT cooperation between the two countries also includes the establishment of the Belize National ICT Center, the continuation of the Agreement on Cooperation in Information and Communication Technology, as well as the four-year ICT Technical Cooperation Program, to boost the specialized abilities of ICT personnel in various agencies in Belize. The ROC in recent years has also actively developed and promoted renewable energy, and Belize and the ROC are about to sign a joint statement on the ROC's sponsorship of a solar power street lamp project. Under that initiative, solar power street lamps made by Taiwanese companies will be installed along the northern highway from Belize City to the Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport. This will enhance road safety, conserve energy, and reduce carbon emissions, the president said.
The president mentioned that since 2009, Taiwan has participated in the World Health Assembly for six consecutive years, and in September 2013 the director general of our Civil Aeronautics Administration under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications attended the assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization, marking the first time since the ROC lost its UN representation in 1971 that it had been invited to attend an assembly of that organization. The president specially expressed his gratitude to Belize for speaking on behalf of the ROC for many years in the UN and supporting our participation in related international fishing organizations. He also expressed hope that Belize will continue to support the ROC, enabling the ROC to make even greater contributions to the international community.