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Taiwanese President His Excellency Ma Ying-jeou met on Monday with the St.Kitts-Nevis delegation led by the Deputy Prime Minister the Hon. Shawn K. Richards . The Delegation are in Taiwan on the invitation of President Ma for that country’s 104th National Day Celebrations .
The Delegation which includes Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Premier of Nevis Hon. Mark Brantley, met with President Ma and discussed matters of mutual interest .
President Ma expressed his great satisfaction with the relationship between St. Kitts Nevis and Taiwan and remembered fondly his visit to St. Kitts and Nevis in 2013 where he recalled he jogged at the Kim Collins Stadium. He also thanked Prime Minister Harris for his stance in solidarity with Taiwan taken at the recently concluded 70th UN General Assembly and pledged further support to SKN in terms of ICT, human resource development, and renewable energy. He made a special appeal for SKN students to seize the opportunity to study medicine in Taiwan as only 1 student so far has answered that call.

Deputy Prime Minister Richards responded by highlighting the many gains both countries has made together pledged the continued support of St. Kitts and Nevis to Taiwan in international fora. The meeting was warm and friendly as is to be expected from Nations that have been close friends and allies for 32 years.
After the meeting with President Ma The Delegation journeyed to the Taiwanese Ministry of Culture and met with Minister Hung and his team. The Minister expresssed his great desire to see greater cultural exchanges and training which Minister Brantley and Deputy Prime Minister Richards both promised to follow up on agressively so that those engaged in Kittitian and Nevisian culture can secure maximum benefit. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture the Honourable Shawn Richards used the opportunity to invite the Minister to St. Kitts for the Music Festival and Carnival whilst Hon Brantley invited him to also visit Nevis for Culturama 42.
The Taipei Municipal Daan Vocational High School was the next stop for the St.Kitts-Nevis Delegation where they were extremely well received by the principal and staff of the institution. The school has 4000 students and teaches everything from auto mechanics to technical drawing and mobile communications in a fully equipped facility. Minister Brantley indicated that they were thoroughly impressed and Deputy Prime Minister Richards expressed the intent to duplicate some of what he has seen in St. Kitts and Nevis. This is very important as the Minister of Education and head of delegation, the Honourable Shawn Richards, has been spearheading UNITY’s new thrust in vocational training.

The Delegation is expected to also meet with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Taiwan.