415 Vincentian students awarded Taiwan scholarship

415 Vincentian students from schools of primary, secondary and college levels across the country received Taiwan Scholarship from the Ambassador Weber Shih of the Republic of China (Taiwan) last Thursday.

The presentation ceremony held at the Peace Memorial Hall was packed by hundreds of students and guests, including Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Girlyn Miguel, Foreign Minister Camillo Gonsalves, Cabinet Secretary Kattian Barnwell, other Government Officials, principals, teachers, recipients and their families.

While making his remarks, Shih said that since 1998, Taiwan has been providing scholarship in the amount of US$100,000 every year to hundreds of students from primary, secondary, and tertiary schools. So far, thousands of students have benefited greatly from the scholarship. This well implemented programme has helped them complete education, fly high and make contributions to the country.

Shih pointed out that since both countries are island economies with little natural resources, the only way for development and success is education, therefore education is one of the priorities for the bilateral cooperation. To ensure the continuation of the scholarship programme, a Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries, on which the scholarship is based, has been renewed for another five years, from 2014 to 2018.

Besides the scholarship presented, Taiwan also provides higher education scholarship to Vincentian youths. To date, over 80 Vincentians have been awarded scholarships to study in Taiwan, and some of them have completed their degrees and returned to serve the country with knowledge obtained from Taiwan.

Meanwhile Miguel expressed gratitude to the government of Taiwan for all the assistance in terms of infrastructure, agricultural, education and human resources development, etc. over the 30-plus years since the establishment of diplomatic ties.

She said that the Government and people of SVG are deeply grateful to Taiwan government for its generosity.

She lauded the government of Taiwan, a model for SVG, for its foresight to invest in education, which has played a key role in its national development. She also encouraged the recipients to make the best use of the scholarship, study hard, so they can complete their education.