Leiden City Mayor Henri Lenferink and delegation, accompanied by the Netherlands Trade and Investment Office Representative Guy Wittich and Deputy Representative Andre Verkade, visited Acting Mayor Li Men-yen at Tainan City Government on November 20. Tainan City Government Cultural Affairs Bureau Director-General Jason Yeh and Department of Information and International Relations Director Hsu Shu-fen were also present, as well as Council of Indigenous Peoples Deputy Minister Wang Ming-huey who traveled south to meet with Mayor Lenferink at his invitation.
Acting Mayor Li welcomed the guests from Leiden on behalf of Tainan citizens. He pointed out that both Tainan and Leiden are old historical cities with world-renowned medical centers and a strong academic atmosphere. Mayor Lenferink’s visit to Tainan marks the beginning of a series of interactions between the two cities and will spur more exchanges and collaborations in areas including city revitalization and academic research.
Li further remarked that Tainan and the Netherlands have been interacting since the 17th century, and in recent years, there have been many collaboration projects in various areas, including architecture, culture, and business, between the two parties.
Through the Dutch Design Post Project, Dutch designers are invited to stay in Tainan and work with local designers, artists, and cultural and creative companies. Moreover, two major international architectural design competitions (Tainan Municipal Library Main Library Construction Project and Tainan Axis Landscape Transformation Project) were both won by teams with Dutch architects. Tainan hopes to see more interactions with the Netherlands, strengthen our relationship, and jointly build a better living environment for our citizens.
In his remarks, Leiden Mayor Lenferink firstly thanked Acting Mayor Li for his hospitality and for arranging the visit to Anping Tree House and Anping Old Fort which transported the delegation back to the Dutch Occupation Period. Leiden is also an old city, and the current city plans are set on foundations laid during the 17th century. The city has many well-preserved historical sites, museums, and opera houses. The New Asian Library, which opened earlier this year, has many books, documents, and files related to Asia that are extremely helpful to Asian and sinology studies. Furthermore, Leiden is focusing on new technology and the development of biomedicine as well. Currently the city has about 18,000 researchers and employees working in related industries and is the largest biomedicine research hub in Europe. Leiden City looks forward to collaborations with other businesses and countries in this field.
Located in the south of the country, Leiden is the oldest city in the Netherlands. Ancient Romans already built a fort here in the 4th century. Leiden became a university town in 1575 when Leiden University, the oldest university in the Netherlands, was established in the city. Leiden University is internationally known for its research in areas such as humanities, sinology, science, and medicine. As National Cheng Kung University and Leiden University are sister universities (they sign the agreement in 2014), National Cheng Kung University President Su Huey-jen and Dean of Medical College Chang Jang-yang were invited to joined the Dutch guests for a meal during their visit.