Basseterre, St. Kitts - AS the Embassy of the Republic of China on Taiwan works assiduously to fulfil its objectives of enhancing the development of agriculture, Resident Ambassador His Excellency Rong Chuan Wu has called for increased support and partnership from the Ministry of Agriculture to ensure the sustainability of such projects.
In a recent exclusive interview with SKNVibes, Ambassador Wu indicated that over the last 25 years, his Embassy has identified the agricultural sector as a critical area for the nation’s overall development. He informed that since then, his country’s International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF) has committed itself to providing a number of scholarships in the area of agriculture.
Wu asserted that the agricultural initiatives undertaken by the Embassy are expected to use government’s resources to offer “collective job opportunities” however noting that there is still much space for improvement in the partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture.
“We have cooperated with the Ministry of Agriculture for the last 25 years and of course we have had our ups and downs and sometimes we do enjoy our cooperation. However, sometimes I feel that there is a gap between our mission and the Ministry of Agriculture especially in our commitment toward agricultural development. We need more communication especially in relation to the government’s central policy of agriculture. This should include a list of the crops the government would choose to concentrate on for the intensive farming programme.
“Although our Chief of Mission participates in meetings and consultations with the Ministry of Agriculture, we need more participation with the local agricultural extension officers. If there are any gaps [in our communication and cooperation], we would like to address it in a constructive way. We must not have personal ideas [limit cooperation]; we have to establish a working relation to have such interaction.”
Wu added that although his government is responsible for providing the necessary technology, it is necessary to strengthen the partnership with the necessary government ministries in order to allow projects to be fruitful.
In the absence of the Director of Agriculture, Crops Programme Leader Thomas Jackson told SKNVibes that the Ministry has had a good relationship with the Embassy as he cited a number of projects they have partnered in.
“We are collaborating with them [the Taiwanese] in terms of cultivating sweet potato on a large scale and they are doing some research on weevil and other pests affecting sweet potato. We are also working together on growing, on a larger scale, exotic fruit trees including guava, five fingers and Indian jujube and we have partnered with the agro-processing [plant] at Needsmust.
Jackson noted that the Taiwanese Mission has had representation at the Ministry’s monthly meetings and added that there are intentions to strengthen the partnership in the near future.
