The delegation of the South East Asian Government Official Studies Camp in Taiwan visited Taichung City Government today (21st) with the aim to understand the planning of the New Southbound Policy and regional links among states of the Taichung City Government as well as the proposal to build sister city relationships with Malang, the second largest city of East Java, Indonesia. The Deputy Mayor Yang Chiung-Ying said Taichung has abundant resources of agriculture, education, and technology industry and the City Government hopes that more enterprises will incorporate with the New Southbound Policy to develop their East Asian markets and to demonstrate their economic strength.

Deputy Mayor Yang Chiung-Ying, Deputy Director of Civil Affairs Bureau, Lu Cheng-yun, and others today jointly greeted the 24 delegates of government officials from countries in South East Asia including Indonesia and Malaysia. The Special Assistant to the Governor of East Java Province, Indonesia, M. Zahrul Azhar Asumta, served as the head of the delegation. He praised the cleanliness of Taichung City and he hopes that in this visit, he is able to learn from Taichung City about the maintenance of a clean city and relevant policies while many cities in Indonesia and Malaysia would like to engage in exchanges with Taichung in the field of tourism and education. More future cooperation is expected to be strengthened.

Director of Small and Mid-sized Enterprises (SMEs) Bureau of Malang, the second largest city in East Java, Indonesia, Tri Widynai, took this opportunity to propose to the Taichung City Government to build the sister city relationship.

The Department of General Affairs said Taichung City now has about 56,906 new inhabitants, making Taichung among the top five cities with a new inhabitant population. The City Government cares about its new inhabitants and continuously organizes tourism language leaning and practical courses and visits to tourism-related industries. Service Centers of ASEAN Square are continuously enhanced to provide immigrant workers and new inhabitants from ASEAN countries more considerate and diverse services and to make Taichung a friendlier international city.

The Department of General Affairs also pointed out that at present among the regional countries under the New Southbound Policy, Taichung City has built sister relationships with Auckland, New Zealand and Makati, the Philippines. In the future, with more exchanges, governments of countries in Southeast Asia will know more about Taichung City for example via higher education, agriculture and fishery industries, city diplomacy, and Muslim-friendly tourism to encourage more people from the New Southbound Policy countries to invest and visit Taichung City.