Taiwan and the US are discussing the details of the Taiwan Fellowship Program, which would allow US federal employees to work in Taiwanese government agencies for a year, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said.
It told the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) that it would head up the program and work with partners to implement it.
The AIT’s headquarters in Washington, its office in Taipei and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US are holding preliminary discussions on the program, it said.
Photo: Tyrone Siu, Reuters
The Taiwan Fellowship Act, included in the US National Defense Authorization Act passed in December last year, provides support for the program.
The fellowship act, modeled after the Mansfield Fellowship Program established in 1994 between the US and Japan, was proposed by pro-Taiwan US lawmakers in 2020.
After it was not included in the legislative agenda in 2020, lawmakers asked the US secretary of state to explore the feasibility of the program in 2021.
The act tasks the secretary of state with consulting the AIT director before submitting an implementation plan for the program to the funding committee within 90 days of the law’s enactment, which is in the middle of next month.
Under the program, US federal employees and other eligible participants could receive fellowships to study and work in Taiwan for up to two years.
The fellows are to study Mandarin, the local culture and regional situation in the first year, before working in a government agency, legislative office or approved private-sector entity in the second year, the act says.
After the preliminary discussions are completed, there would be an open process to choose qualified agencies to implement the program, the AIT said, adding that no promises have been made to any agency.
The recruitment and selection of fellows would begin after the partners are chosen, it said.
Some local media reported alleged details and schedules of the program, saying that it might begin as soon as this year, but officials familiar with the act said that such details have not been finalized.
The program might be expanded to allow for bilateral exchanges, with Taiwanese public-sector employees able to work in agencies in the US, they said.
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