Taipei, Aug. 16 (CNA) A total of 26 young people from El Salvador have received Taiwan-sponsored scholarships and will arrive in Taiwan in late August to pursue their studies, according to Republic of China Ambassador to El Salvador Jaime Chen.

Chen made the remarks at an award ceremony in the Central American country that was co-hosted by El Salvador's deputy minister for development cooperation, Jaime Miranda, and Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Castaneda.

Among the 26 awards, 10 were provided by the Taiwan Scholarship program, funded by the Ministry of Education.

After the Taiwan Scholarship was established in 2004, the slots available to El Salvador increased from four to 10. This year, the number of applicants more than doubled, proving that Taiwan's higher education is well-recognized there, Chen said.

Chen said the government has done its best to internationalize Taiwan's educational system and that the country performs well in fields such as agricultural science, medicine, chemistry and physics.

He encouraged more international students to make use of the scholarship programs on offer and to come to Taiwan to pursue further education.

The other scholarships included seven under the Huayu Enrichment Scholarship program and nine offered by the International Higher Education Scholarship program.

El Salvador is one of the 23 coutries with which Taiwan maintains full diplomatic relations.

(By Ku Lan-ying and Jeannie Chen)
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