St. Vincent and the Grenadines Foreign Minister Keisal Peters and Belize first lady Rossana Briceno met separately with President Tsai Ing-wen (???) on Tuesday in Taipei, ahead of their participation in a forum on women’s empowerment.
Speaking with Peters at the Presidential Office, Tsai said Taiwan and St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) have not only supported each other in many areas, but also expanded their people-to-people ties through women’s empowerment and education projects in recent years.
Taiwan and the Caribbean nation are currently working on a joint project that aims to provide more resources to female entrepreneurs and help women develop professional skills in SVG, she said.
At the same time, Taiwan’s government has provided more scholarship opportunities for Vincentian students to study in Taiwan starting in 2023, Tsai said, adding that these projects would allow the two sides to build “a more solid foundation for people-to-people exchanges.”
Peters, who is in Taiwan for the first time, described the joint project on women’s empowerment as “timely” as her country recovers from the adverse economic impact of both COVID-19 and a major volcanic eruption in 2021.
“Taiwan has been there for St. Vincent and the Grenadines in every sector, and we are truly appreciative,” Peters said, noting that her country, at the same time, has shown its “unwavering support for the Republic of China, Taiwan.”
During her meeting with Briceno, Tsai praised the Belizean first lady’s dedication to issues related to women’s empowerment and education of children.
She also said Briceno’s visit to Taiwan from Feb. 14 to 17 as a special envoy for Belize’s development of families and children was symbolic of the close ties between Taiwan and Belize.
On the economic front, Tsai lauded a bilateral economic cooperation agreement (ECA) that took effect in January 2022, and said that since then businesses from the two sides have signed letters of intent for the purchase of Belizean lobsters worth more than US$2 million.
In her brief remarks, Briceno praised Tsai’s leadership as “instrumental” in the promotion of Taiwan-Belize ties while saying that Belize “look[s] forward to continuing to work together [with Taiwan] in the future.”
Both Peters and Briceno will take part in the forum “Empower Women! Empower LAC!” scheduled for Wednesday in Taipei and share their country’s experience in empowering women as part of efforts to build economic resilience in the post-COVID-19 era.
The forum is part of the “Assisting the Economic Empowerment of Women in Latin America and the Caribbean in the Post COVID-19 Era” project initiated by Taiwan’s government in its Latin American and Caribbean allies in 2021.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel