Taipei, July 7 (CNA) A total of 200 young Taiwanese were selected Wednesday as the first participants in a working holiday program between Canada and Taiwan.
"I had expected the applications would be overwhelming, " said Scott Fraser, Executive Director of the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei (CTOT) , after a draw to pick 200 names from a pool of 516 applicants.
Under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that took effect July 1, the administrative process will be simplified for people aged 18-35 from Canada and Taiwan who wish to travel and work in each other's territory for up to one year. Each side has offered a quota of 200 of multiple entry visas in the first year of the program.
Toby Schwartz, CTOT's deputy director of general relations, encouraged the Taiwanese whose names were drawn to take advantage of the range of travel opportunities Canada offers.
"It's a big place with different specific characters in each area, such as the west coast and the east coast, " she said.
Schwartz said she hopes the Taiwanese who take part in the program would make friends with Canadians and "go back to study in Canada, taking short courses or learning either English or French."
The 200 candidates selected in the draw will be screened further and 20 standby names have been drawn in case of any of the candidates fail to meet the requirements, Schwartz said.
Canada was the fourth country to sign a working holiday agreement with Taiwan, while Taiwan was the 22nd country to do so with Canada.
"This is a great opportunity for Canadian and Taiwanese youth. Canadians can travel and work in Taiwan for up to a year, gaining valuable work and professional development experience. Taiwanese young people can do the same in Canada, " Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon said in a press release earlier in the day.
Taiwan also has working holiday agreements with Australia, New Zealand and Japan and was the fourth country in the Asia-Pacific region to make such an arrangement with Canada, after Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong.
In 2009, the number of Canadians who traveled abroad under the working holiday program was 19,000, while Canada hosted 53,000 youth from other countries.
With regard to Taiwan's hope of being included in Canada's visa waiver program, Fraser said the relevant authorities in her country looked at the technical aspects of the issue several months ago and found no problem, but a final decision has not yet been made.
"It would be a good thing if Taiwan is included, but there's no schedule yet at this point," she said. (By Chris Wang) enditem /pc