Taiwan will grant a university scholarship in memory of Sir Vincent Beache, the Vincentian politician who was in the delegation to visit Taiwan in August 1981, to establish Kingstown-Taipei ties.
Sir Vincent, 87, died on Monday, three days before SVG inaugurated its embassy in Taiwan.
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves made the scholarship announcement in Taiwan on Thursday at the inauguration of the embassy.
He said Tsai Ing-wen accepted his suggestion on Wednesday to grant an additional scholarship in the area of applied sciences, technology and electronics, which were areas of Sir Vincent’s own professional expertise.
He said the scholarship, which is to be called the Sir Vincent Ian Beache Scholarship, would be tenable at a university in Taiwan.
Gonsalves pointed out that Sir Vincent and then Prime Minister, Robert Milton Cato, had travelled to Taiwan in 1981.
Sir Vincent was also a member of Gonsalves’ delegation during his first visit as prime minister after the ULP came to office in March 2001.
Sir Vincent played a very important role in shaping SVG-Taiwan ties under the ULP administration, the prime minister said.
Maybe the Taiwanese will pay for his State funeral, or if not, Gonsalves should pay it himself.
So sad to hear of Sir Vincent’s passing. I had the opportunity to work with him a number of years ago and always found him to be an honourable man. He leaves some very big shoes to be filled.
Sadly, that scholarship on offer may not be teaching the tenets of Democracy!
A commentator here on the site recently had taken to tell us that we live in a democracy in SVG but by observation, since these red-shirts came to power here, our Democracy has become the Democracy of North Korea.
That is really what is very sad!