• 2016-05-27

The NCL and the Australian Office Taipei jointly held "Land Down Under: Australia through the lens of Taiwanese Working Holidays Makers" Exhibition on the 27th of May. NCL Director General Shu-hsien Tseng and Catherine Raper, Representative of the Australian Office Taipei both presided the opening ceremony. The exhibit will be displayed at the NCL until the 25th of September 2016. This year also marks the 35th anniversary of the establishment of Australian Office Taipei. Many guests were invited for this occasion. Those present were the Ministries of Education and Foreign Affairs as well as Representatives from several countries. A festive atmosphere filled the venue.

Working holidays abroad does not only serve educational and cultural purposes, it also has diplomatic and economic implications. Through working holidays abroad, the youth is able to experience a different culture and can broaden his international perspective. For himself, it promotes personal growth, develops intercultural adaptability and provides good learning opportunities. From the diplomatic point of view, youths involved in working holidays are the best marketing agents to make Taiwan known, increasing understanding and promoting exchanges among peoples from other countries. From the economic point of view, besides having their personal earning, the youths also spend locally, provide labor manpower which help local economic development.

To assist and encourage our local youths to interact with youths from other countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has signed a working holiday visa agreement with 14 countries since 2004. Australia is the second country to have signed this agreement and the only country that does not restrict the number of applicants. Since 2004, 193,000 youths have gone abroad on working holidays. Those who went to Australia reached 156,000. Currently, there are about 26,000 on working holidays in Australia.

Through the 34 photos on display today, we are brought to the land of Australia, leading us from high mountains to the sea, from a comfortable daytime to a star-studded night, from farmland to artistic streets of the city. Each photo guides us to see the exquisite beauty of the natural sceneries in Australia, the harmonious co-existence of wild life animals as well as Australia's most beautiful feast: the Jacaranda Festival and many other natural and cultural scenes. More importantly, we can see the adventurous spirit and courage of the young people of Taiwan in a foreign land and their efforts and perseverance to realize their dreams.

In her speech, Director General Tseng addressed that the Australian Office Taipei continues to play an important key role for the cooperation between Australia and Taiwan in the fields of education, culture, arts, economy and trade, science & technology, tourism. In the future, she hope that the Australian Office Taipei and the NCL will continue to cooperate in organizing exhibitions on various themes or other activities so that both of our people may have the opportunity to have a richer experience of the value and the potential creativeness of life.

In her speech, Representative Catherine Raper expressed the fact that the year 2016 is a milestone in the relationship between Australia and Taiwan specifically because it is the 35th year of the Australian Office in Taiwan. During these years, through talented, hard-working committed people from both Taiwan and Australia, increasingly closer ties are enhanced and will certainly grow in depths and breathe! When the Australian Office Taipei was first established in the year 1991, Taiwan has a totally different face. During the past ten years, we witnessed Taiwan's economic takeoff. After the year 2016, we have the opportunity to establish closely linked complimentary economies such as in agriculture, aquaculture, nuclear energy technology investment and cooperation and many other fields. We also look forward to welcome more students and adventurous and courageous working holidaymakers to come to Australia.