Jordan Reeves, Executive Director of the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei, and Martin Laflamme, Director of Political & Cultural Affairs, visited Tainan City Government on August 27 with Legislator Wang Ting-yu. The visiting party and Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che talked about future collaborations in education and culture between Tainan and Canada.
After welcoming Representative Reeves to Tainan, Mayor Huang Wei-che thanked Canada for their strong support of Tainan and Taiwan. Although the global economy has been significantly impacted by the pandemic, agriculture-related interactions between Tainan and Canada were never interrupted. Huang remarked that Tainan City will continue to produce the high-quality agriculture products which Canadians enjoy. The Mayor also gifted the visitors in-season pomelo gift sets to thank Representative Reeves and Canada for their support of Tainan’s agricultural produce exports.
Representative Reeves remarked that since the Taiwanese government is now promoting the 2030 Bilingual Nation Policy, he looks forward to further enhancing collaborations between Tainan and Canada by working with Taiwanese schools to launch a high school dual degrees system. Reeves supplied that currently a total of 27 high schools in Taipei, Taoyuan, and other counties and cities in northern Taiwan have joined the system, and he invites Tainan to take part in the program as well. Representative Reeves also suggested that they can introduce the outdoor installation artwork “Uninterrupted”, which depicts the exciting journey of Canadian salmon fish, to Tainan and let more Tainan residents experience Canadian culture.
Mayor Huang Wei-che strongly supported Representative Reeves' suggestion. Huang said that if Canada, which is also an English-speaking country, can participate in the dual degrees system, it would offer more English-learning environment options to students in Tainan.
Huang also mentioned that Tainan has rich culture and history and is known as the Cultural Capital. The city welcomes all sorts of cultural artworks exhibitions and he looks forward to seeing the exciting results brought forth by the interactions between different cultures.
Representative Reeves took office in the summer of 2018. This is his second term in Taiwan, and Reeves has already visited Tainan multiple times since assuming his post. In addition to attending the Tainan International Dragon Boat Championships at the invitation of Tainan City Government, the Canadian Office has collaborated several times with the city government and even selected Tainan as the opening city of the Office's Year of Canadian-Taiwanese Innovators event. After the delegation visited Tainan City Government, they stopped at a couple of local historical sites such as Anping Tree House and Anping Old Fort.