Taiwan and Indonesia plan to build stronger ties in agriculture, trade, and talent development in the tech field. That came from the Presidential Office on Thursday, two days after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) met with an Indonesian delegation in Taipei.
Tsai says this is the first time an Indonesian legislative delegation has visited since the beginning of the pandemic. She says the two countries have worked closely together throughout her six years in office, especially in agriculture.
Tsai says Taiwan and Indonesia signed a memorandum of cooperation in 2018 on cultivating Indonesian talent in the tech industry. Indonesian students currently make up the second largest origin of international students in Taiwan and there are over 240,000 Indonesian migrant workers in the country.
Tsai says working with Indonesia is a major part of Taiwan's New Southbound Policy, which promotes Taiwan's relationships with other Indo-Pacific nations. She says joint trade between the two countries was over US$11.3 billion last year and she hopes to continue building trade relations.
Indonesian lawmaker Mardani Ali Sera is leading the Indonesian delegation and says the two countries are facing similar global problems. Those include the pandemic, climate change, and the war in Ukraine. He says Taiwan and Indonesia need to face these issues together to make their economies stronger and build a more peaceful world.