Mongolia-Taiwan ties getting stronger
Congratulations on the 99th National Day of Taiwan. There were many familiar faces in the celebration, including MPs.
Thank you. First of all, I want to say that since my coming here, Mongolian and Taiwanese ties have greatly strengthened. That’s why, and also because we did not celebrate this important event last year because of natural catastrophe and flood problems, this year we are celebrating two years of National Day. It was nice. Personally, I am very happy to have made many Mongolian friends who are sharing with me the common target of promoting bilateral relations between Mongolia and Taiwan.
Cooperation between parliaments of both sides is developing rapidly. I am very happy to say that, in January this year, our Parliament established a Friendly to Mongolia Club. The Mongolian Parliament reciprocated with a Friendly to Taiwan Club in May, which has 11 members, including senior parliamentarians. As for the club in Taiwan, there are more than 20 MPs. The two clubs will contribute much to the future cooperation. So the parliamentarians are becoming more interested in Taiwanese affairs and are working to improve bilateral relations.
What about the non-political sectors? What have you achieved in fields such as economic cooperation?
We organized many important activities cosponsored by Mongolia and Taiwan during this period. Among these, of course, was the trade bazaar in September at Misheel Expo Center, where Taiwan sent a large group of delegates. We are happy to see that Mongolians’ interest in Taiwanese products is increasing. This is significant for bilateral ties.
Many Mongolian friends are willing to see more of Taiwan’s advanced technology and computer products. We have annual activities to exhibit our computer products in Taipei. We hope to hold similar exhibitions here in Mongolia, so that our friends here do not need to fly to Taiwan. This is one of our priorities. I am happy to report that one of our more successful construction companies, K&T, has joined the Mongolian Government’s 100,000 Apartments project. We now have just one percent of the construction sector, but hope to reach 15 percent before long. Taiwanese builders have sold many apartments to Mongolian friends who are interested in their style and quality of construction. K&T will hold a computer exhibition on the first floor of their office soon. This is just one example of the budding bilateral cooperation.
How are Taiwan’s international relations, excluding Mongolia? For example, the relations between China and Taiwan?
We have good interaction and cooperation between Taiwan and mainland China, and have signed 14 agreements. We call China the Chinese mainland because Taiwan is Republic of China. We are actually also representing China. So there is one China but two different interpretations. They call “One China”, we call “two interpretations”. Now, both sides, including the governments and the people, are more interested than earlier in developing mutually beneficial collaboration. There are lots of areas where we can cooperate.
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait are working for mutually beneficial cooperation. In Mongolia also, the Government of course, but also NGOs and others should take this golden opportunity to develop beneficial cooperation in many fields.
I think two fields are very important. One is, we should expedite the possibility of direct flights. This can start with chartered flights, and these prove to be profitable for both sides, then we can go for direct flights. That would make for easier travelling for people, including students, intellectuals and government officials, as well as for transporting goods. This is one thing which we should try hard.
The second one is visa facilitation. We can facilitate the procedures of issuing visas etc. We can make it easier and convenient for people to apply for visas. This way, it will be easier for travelling from here to there and from there to here. But until today, I regret to say that the Mongolian side hasn’t taken any concrete steps in this area. We issue visas directly on passports but the Mongolian office in Taipei issue the visa as a separate sheet which is easy to lose. Business people and students always complain that it is very inconvenient. It also adds to the cost for the Mongolian side. So we hope that your respected Government will take a favorable decision to reciprocate our practice. Besides, we issue visas in Ulaanbaatar, while your office in Taipei just puts its stamp on the visa paper which is issued in Bangkok. Bangkok is in Thailand. The stamp should be issued in Taipei. This is nothing political. It has nothing to do with China. If the Mongolian side takes it seriously to strengthen Mongolian-Taiwanese cooperation, this should be changed.
In our previous interview, you said that Taiwan wants to have the status of an observer in two international organizations. Has there been any progress?
Taiwan is very practical. Our ultimate goal is UN membership, but for now, our main interest is to become member of non-Governmental, but more functional, international organizations. We are very interested to participate in two such organizations in particular. One is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the other the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). We choose these two as both are totally non-political and there are no boundaries. ICAO, for example, is a civil flights cooperation convention. Taiwan operates many flights in Asia, from and to our capital city, Taipei, and Kaohsiung. If the international community cares about flight security, Taiwan should not be kept out of this convention. At the summit on climate change, President Elbegdorj emphasized that Mongolia is willing to do more and cooperate with all members of the international community. Among them Taiwan is very important. So Taiwan is very happy and would like to cooperate with Mongolia. We only hope that Mongolian Government would just support Taiwanese participation, if not in UN, but in other conventions and organizations. If it is difficult in some way, Mongolia could at least not actively oppose our efforts. We hope to receive Mongolian Government support in the future for many areas.
Have you received any response to your request to become the member of these organizations?
Yes. We are going have an observer status to begin with. We are trying to participate as an NGO, not as a Government. This will make us less functional and less efficient in the organization. If there are political problems, we can use other names. For example, Taiwan joined the WTO in 2002 not in its national name of ROC or Taiwan, but as the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu. We can use different names for different organizations because Taiwan is very pragmatic and very flexible. More countries are supporting us this way. China, for example, is an onlooker. They don’t automatically participate. Most of the countries express support. So we very much need Mongolian support.
More and more students are heading for Taiwanese universities. What makes Taiwan so attractive for Mongolian students? Is it the scholarships?
We consider young people as the treasure for the future of a country. It is very good that there is a steady increase in the number of both Mongolian students in Taiwan and of Taiwanese young people here. Once Mongolian students get a scholarship to study in Taiwan, they will know more about the country, and when they come back, and work for the government or NGOs and civil organizations, they will contribute more to promotion of bilateral interests and friendship. This is one thing that we must support. This year we issued visas to about 165 new students, taking the number of Mongolian students in Taiwan to over 550. The number should be closer to 600 by the end of this year.
A couple of months ago, nearly 20 Taiwanese universities that offer good scholarships, full or partial, came here to collect and encourage Mongolian students. Also, a Taiwanese education center has opened in Otgontenger University. The staff there say more and more Mongolian young people are showing interest in studying in Taiwan. Taiwanese universities offer many types of scholarships. I would like take this opportunity to encourage Mongolian students and scholars to apply to our institutions. This year, over 100 scholarships were given to Mongolian PhD and Masters Degree students. As always, unique majors are easier to win scholarships than common ones.
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