Taiwan’s agriculture mission in Guatemala has won acclaim for helping the country improve farming technology and develop small farm projects, diplomatic sources said over the weekend.
The achievements have also attracted the attention of major agricultural research institutions worldwide, the sources said.
Representatives of agricultural research institutes in 12 Latin American countries and Spain visited Taiwan-Guatemala cooperative ventures on Wednesday, including a food processing factory, a dragon fruit orchard and an organic compost site.
Both Max Gonzalez, head of the Guatemalan Institute of Agricultural Science, and Chimaltenango Governor Hector Lopez expressed gratitude for the Taiwanese mission’s outstanding contribution to their country’s agricultural development.
The agricultural mission has two technicians and three diplomatic conscripts in Chimaltenango to teach local farmers about planting crops and food processing.
Meanwhile, Guatamalan Vice Minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Gonzalo Ochaeta led a group of senior Guatemalan officials and government advisers on a recent visit to a bamboo arts and crafts teaching center in Cuyuta City, which is also operated by Taiwan’s agriculture mission.
Ochaeta said he was impressed by the accomplishments of agricultural cooperation projects, adding that his department would send staff to the Cuyuta center to learn how to become seed instructors to help spread bamboo arts and crafts to every corner of the country.
The mission promotes bamboo cultivation and crafts and the Cuyuta center has become the best-equipped bamboo arts and crafts teaching center in Central America.
It offers courses on growing bamboo, handicrafts and bamboo-furniture-making technologies as well as bamboo architecture.
Taiwan’s agricultural mission has been using bamboo as the key building material for school classrooms and low-cost housing units in remote regions and for hurricane victims. It has also provided 100,000 bamboo seedlings under a rural development project in cooperation with the Guatemalan Presidential Office.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS