Taiwan Today

Agricultural know-how crosses borders and enriches relations with New Southbound Policy countries.
 

Before her first trip to Indonesia, Wu Ai-yuan (吳艾元‬) did not know much about the world’s fourth most populous nation. “I was pleasantly surprised to find out that in Indonesia, flowers are frequently used for decoration at meetings, for example,” said the 29-year-old, who works in floriculture in central Taiwan’s Changhua County while studying agricultural management at National Chiayi University (NCYU) in southern Taiwan. Wu is one of 114 Young Agricultural Ambassadors (YAAs) who travel overseas as part of the New Southbound Policy (NSP) Exchange Program. The NSP was initiated in 2016 as a major economic, cultural and educational development strategy targeting the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states, six South Asian countries, Australia and New Zealand. The YAA project has been organized annually since 2017 by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and Agriculture (MOA) except during the height of COVID-19.
 

YAA exchange visits to NSP countries include discussions with Taiwan entrepreneurs in various sectors who share business experience and information on overall economic development and local market opportunities, as well as meetings with members of technical missions from the International Cooperation and Development Fund, Taiwan’s main foreign aid organization, to learn about joint agricultural projects. “Taiwan’s agricultural sector is a strength we count on to deepen ties with NSP countries. The scheme gives young people the opportunity to directly take part in international affairs,” said Hsiao Kuang-wei (蕭光偉‬), deputy director general of MOFA’s Public Diplomacy Coordination Council. “When it comes to agriculture, Taiwan has a lot to offer the region.”
 

Last year two groups of youth ambassadors visited the Philippines and Indonesia, respectively, each led by an official from the MOFA and the MOA. They toured government agricultural agencies, visited research institutes and spent time with workers. “I was deeply impressed by the YAA cohort I met. I could tell they had spent time doing research on the destination country before the trip as well as on the organizations and places they were scheduled to visit,” said Hsiao, who led 12 participants to the Philippines last year.

Business Case

Lin Lih-fang (林麗芳), director general of MOA’s international affairs department, thinks highly of the program, as it has a long track record for cultivating talent. “It broadens their horizons and offers them ways to explore and connect with the outside world,” the official said. “People-to-people exchanges are a core strand of the NSP and enhance Taiwan’s soft power by consolidating bilateral ties.”
 

The exchange program, which brought Huang Yi-sheng (黃壹聖) to the Philippines for the first time in 2017, resulted in a broadening of his business vision to encompass the Southeast Asian country. After a one-week stay comprising talks with Filipino agricultural experts, government officials and aquaculture operators, the tilapia breeder decided to offer turnkey solutions to industry players there. Since his business had already gained a firm foothold in his native Pingtung County, Huang started to look for partners in the Philippines who could replicate his southern Taiwan facility, including self-designed patented equipment and a newly established on-site solar microgrid. “Power cuts are an issue in the Philippines and a potential cause of financial loss for an aquaculture business. This can be addressed with the development of solar power as an alternative energy source. It’s also easier to sell tilapia to the country after building ties with local partners. It’s a win-win situation,” Huang said.
 

The eye-opening experience was so rewarding that Huang encouraged other young professionals in Pingtung to forge similar connections. One such person is fruit grower Pan Shang-chih (潘上至‬), who took a trip to the Philippines in 2023 after meeting Huang at a training session organized by the local government. “There are many Southeast Asian farm workers in Pingtung. I was curious about them and where they hail from,” Pan said. “Having experienced how people live and do business there helps me better connect with them.” During his YAA trip, Pan went to the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research Institute, an intergovernmental nonprofit organization that nurtures agricultural and rural development. He also visited the International Rice Research Institute, which trains personnel and develops rice varieties. “These organizations expanded my views. I’m not a rice farmer, but I acquired know-how and can share what I learned back in Taiwan,” he said. Pan benefited from meeting with locals in the agricultural setor, with whom he shared measures to prevent damage during typhoons, a natural disaster common to both countries that has potential to cause huge losses. He also made suggestions such as regular pruning for mango trees to control their height, a practice widely used in Taiwan that makes it easier to pick the fruit. “It feels good to share the knowledge accumulated in Taiwan with Filipino farmers,” he added.

Spawning Networks

Hsu Wei-ting (徐韋婷), who manages organic fungus farms in northern Taiwan’s Yilan County and Taoyuan City, visited Indonesia last year and shared her acumen on remotely controlled temperatures, humidity and carbon dioxide concentration in cultivation facilities. “Taiwan’s smart agriculture is a soft power that can be leveraged to enhance relations in Indonesia,” she said. Likewise, floriculture manager Wu discovered Taiwan had a useful strength in its logistics support, including cold chain technology and convenience store pickup services, following dialogue with experts at state-run agricultural institution IPB University in Bogor, south of Jakarta. Both Wu and Hsu developed ties with 33 young Indonesian agriculture business staff who, supported by the MOA, had interned in Taiwan for a year. “It was a wonderful opportunity for one-on-one conversations,” Wu said. “Those I talked with all expressed excitement about their time in Taiwan and how they’re applying what they learned to their current work in Indonesia. This kind of interaction raises all sorts of possibilities for future collaboration.”
 

Agricultural ambassadors do not step out of the role at the end of the overseas trips. Back in Taiwan, they share their experience with other young people in the sector to motivate them to work with NSP countries or apply for the MOFA- and MOA-supported exchange program. The MOA also invites the agricultural ambassadors to events for counterparts from NSP countries studying in Taiwan. “Southeast Asia wasn’t on my radar before, but it definitely is now,” said Wu, who in January gave a lecture for over 100 students at NCYU’s College of Agriculture on her trip to Indonesia. “Young people in Taiwan are shifting their attention outward and the youth in the region are reaching back, encouraging firm bilateral ties.”

Write to Oscar Chung at mhchung@mofa.gov.tw