The Senate also adopted a resolution to Support Democratic Taiwan and Strengthen Bilateral Bonds. But as the lead UDP Senator - and a former Minister of Education pointed out - many Belizean students who receive Taiwanese scholarships don't come back. He emphasized this problem yesterday.
Patrick Faber, UDP Senator
"Let me also make a plea because one of the many gifts that Taiwan gives to this country and I always say the best gifts comes from friends but the best gifts are even further defined by being the kind of gift that once given another be taken back and I've always enjoyed the fact that Taiwan has given us is access to education for our young people in particular and this is across many fields, many areas. The problem I had while I was Minister of Education and I am assuming my colleagues in this Senate will agree with me, maybe we need to continue to press for it, something that I certainly pressed for as minister of Education is that we need some kind of greater understanding that our students who go to Taiwan to study return to this nation because it is not an individual gift given to individuals who go to study. It is the intention of both our nations that once our students go, they will come back and contribute to Belize's development."
And Senator Courtenay agreed with him. He explained that the government has engaged the Taiwanese government and that it is an issue they're working on.
Eamon Courtenay, Leader of Government Business
"We have engaged the government of Taiwan on this issue. Senator Faber is right to say that these scholarships are scholarships given to Belize. There is a process that is undertaken to identify who the beneficiaries are. it is not a situation where a student has gone out directly to Taiwan and said please give me a scholarship. This is a program between two countries and our Belizean students benefit from it. We have said to the government of Taiwan it is counterproductive and it is counterintuitive for you to have a relationship with us to promote the development of Belize to educate our Belizeans and then one, to seduce to stay in Taiwan, two, to give them education, Bachelor's level and Master's level, and give them a work permit to teach English as a second language and allow them to stay, a residence permit in Taiwan. So we need to continue that engagement with Tiawan to say that you should not except for exceptional circumstances for example, marriage, somebody gets married to a Taiwanese or a resident there then clearly you can't force that person to come back or secondly a situation where somebody has a job to a stepping stone to do a further degree so they stay and they don't come back immediately. But ultimately the issue has got to be building the human capital of Belize and as a true partner we need to find ways to reduce the number of Belizeans who remain in Taiwan after having the benefit of a scholarship."
