BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – PARTNERSHIP with the government and the Embassy of the Republic of China on Taiwan continued to bear fruit with Tuesday morning’s (Jun. 15) donation of 53 Acer desktop computers to primary schools in both St. Kitts and Nevis.
The Embassy has over the last two decades demonstrated its commitment to the development of the Federation, particularly in the areas of agriculture, information communication technologies (ICT) and technical cooperation. Each of the 23 public primary schools will receive two Acer desktops shortly as a donation from the Embassy.
At a brief handing-over ceremony held at the Foundation for National Development, resident ambassador His Excellency Rong Chuan Wu addressed the attending principals and headmasters, noting the importance of ICT in educational institutions.
“For the last few years, we were able to contribute a computer classroom in the ICT centre, we presented computers to the secondary schools and this year we have the honour to present more than 50 desktops to the Ministry of Education for a contribution to the different primary schools.
“We have the pleasure to inform you that SKN is heading the other ally nations of the Republic of China in the Caribbean in terms of IT cooperation. So, this Federation will be very ideal to promote as an IT country,” Wu said during brief remarks at the ceremony.
Last September, every secondary school received two Acer desktop computers, which are expected to make the learning process “more efficient”.
The donation was praised by Senior Education Officer Michael Blake, who thanked the representatives of the Embassy for maintaining healthy diplomatic relations with the government. He stressed that their donations have brought much needed improvements across multiple sectors.
“We have benefited time and again from their generousness and we have been able to seize quality improvements in the education sector as a result of tangible, concrete inputs by the embassy.
“We are therefore eternally grateful to the Taiwanese for their consistent and persistent interventions in education in a manner that leads to development and enhancement,” he said.
Describing the ceremony as “very symbolic”, Minister of Education Nigel Carty said he is pleased with the benefits received through the partnership with Taiwan and that it is important for information technology to be merged with education.
“I believe that over the years we have been able to learn a lot of lessons from Taiwan, who has led in many areas of economic development...and we have been beneficiaries of the goodness and the kindness of the republic of China on Taiwan.
“We are very proud of the assistance which we have received over the years and we look forward to our continued strong, positive relationship with you,” Carty said in response to the Wu’s donation.
Ambassador Wu encouraged the principals gathered to utilize the ICT and agriculture facilities as the Embassy continues to develop the two sectors in the Federation.
