The minister of Taiwan’s Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC), Wu Hsin-hsing, says he’s hoping to recruit more overseas students to work at Taiwanese companies abroad, and to send more Chinese language teachers to schools overseas. That’s part of the council’s efforts to support President Tsai’s New South-bound Policy, which focuses on boosting ties with Southeast Asia and India.
At the legislature on Monday, Wu presented his plans to build a more inter-connected overseas Chinese community. Wu said that his council aims to double the number of overseas Taiwanese students since most of them are bilingual and are considered good candidates for Taiwanese companies abroad. Wu is also hoping to send more Chinese language teachers to Chinese schools in Southeast Asia.
“We will need to further promote Chinese language education [in Southeast Asian countries]. We are now building a platform to recruit Chinese language teachers [since] we’ve noticed a shortage of Chinese, mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology teachers in over 500 schools in the region," said Wu, "I think there are many retired and unemployed teachers, as well as recent graduates, who would be interested in teaching in Southeast Asian countries.”
The OCAC says it will also encourage returning overseas Taiwanese to teach English to local students. Wu said that can help promote exchanges between local Taiwanese youth and those returning from abroad.