Premier Mao Chi-kuo was on hand at an event on Sunday for children of foreign spouses. The event was the culmination of a recent program to encourage the children to spend part of their summer vacation with their grandparents who live overseas. The goal of the program is enable the children to learn the language and culture of their extended family outside Taiwan.
Right now Taiwan has nearly half a million people who are married to foreign spouses. The government has been working to offer assistance to the more than 350,000 children born into these families.
After learning about the results of the program this year, Premier Mao said that he hoped that in the future the classmates of these children can also learn from their experiences, and give a boost in confidence to the students with different cultural backgrounds.
Meanwhile, Premier Mao also said that the government would continue to budget one billion Taiwan dollars (nearly US$31 million) every year to assist these families.