The hardship Taiwan has survived makes the nation great and worth learning from, Paraguayan president-elect Santiago Pena told Paraguayan students in Taiwan yesterday.
Pena, who is visiting Taiwan from Tuesday to tomorrow, met with Paraguayan exchange students at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTUST).
The exchange students are from the Taiwan-Paraguay Polytechnic University, a collaboration between NTUST and the Paraguayan government commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Photo: NTUST via CNA
Taiwan-Paraguay Polytechnic University, located in Asuncion, was founded in 2019 and has enrolled 514 students, NTUST said in a press release yesterday.
The university consists of four departments — mechanical and electrical engineering, information engineering, construction engineering and industrial engineering — and sends its students to Taiwan for a one-and-a-half-year exchange program, it said.
NTUST has welcomed 286 exchange students from Paraguay and for the first time this year, 16 of these students stayed in Taiwan after their exchange program to take up internship positions at seven Taiwanese companies, it said.
NTUST president Yen Jia-yush (顏家鈺) and other university officials welcomed Pena and briefed him about the achievements of the Taiwan-Paraguay Polytechnic University, it said.
Pena told the students that “hardship is good. Hardship has made Taiwan what it is.”
He shared his experience of visiting Taiwan 24 years ago as an economics student, which “opened my eyes to a world of opportunity, what knowledge can do, what hardship can do.”
“Taiwan is the best in what they do,” Pena said. “A culture of sacrifice effort that made these nations so great.”
“I have so much to learn from the society of this country,” he said, adding that Paraguay can achieve greatness if they spare no effort and do their best every day.
On Wednesday, Pena expressed hope that Paraguay and Taiwan could continue to deepen exchanges and cooperation in all sectors at a banquet presided over by Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮).
Pena thanked Taiwan for its long-term support of Paraguay’s development and hoped that the people from both sides can continue to benefit from the bilateral cooperation, the ministry said in a press release yesterday.
Taiwan and Paraguay have long been cooperating closely and have achieved fruitful results in politics, economy, trade, education and medical care, Wu said.
Based on the existing foundation, Taiwan hopes to keep working with the new government of Paraguay to bring prosperity to their people, he said.
The banquet was held on the 66th anniversary of the diplomatic ties between Taiwan and Paraguay, the ministry said.
Paraguayan beef, organic sugar and mate herbal tea were included in the banquet menu, it added.
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