Taipei, Nov. 6 (CNA) Taiwan and the Kingdom of Thailand signed an agreement on agricultural technical cooperation Saturday to resume extensive agricultural collaboration that has slowed over the past six years.
In the absence of formal diplomatic ties, the agreement was signed by Taiwan's International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF) , the principal body administering Taiwan's development projects abroad, and the Royal Project Foundation of Thailand.
Prince Bhisatej Rajani, a distant cousin of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, expressed his gratitude to Taiwan at the signing ceremony and said that, because of Taiwan's assistance in agricultural technology, Thailand is now able to sell vegetables to Taiwan.
Bilateral cooperation can be traced back to 1969, said ICDF Deputy Secretary-General Lee Pai-po, recalling when Taiwan sent agricultural experts under the request of the Thai royal family to help farmers in northern Thailand stop growing opium and start planting vegetables and fruit.
Starting in 1970, a permanent technical team was stationed in northern Thailand, and the scheme was expanded over the years to include tea, flowers, mushrooms and organic products, Lee said.
Taiwanese and Thai agricultural authorities signed an official cooperation agreement in 2004, but achievements were not as good as in the previous 34 years, Lee said, which is why the two sides decided to resume extensive exchanges.
The new agreement, which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2011, aims to include additional items, such as oranges and strawberries, he noted.
Cooperation with Thailand has special significance in Taiwan because, in addition to helping the Southeast Asian nation develop its agriculture, it has helped hundreds of "war orphans" residing in northern Thailand.
These are descendants of Chinese soldiers who retreated into the area after Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government lost the Chinese Civil War to the Communists in the late 1940s.
"The program has been able to help with their employment and well-being. Some of them had also grown opium for a living in the past," Lee said. (By Chris Wang) enditem/MH