Taiwan’s new southbound policy: the cooperation and exchanges of human resources and the impacts on the education cooperation between Taiwan and Vietnam

Abstract

The economic boom in the 1970s has allowed Taiwan to rise as one of the ``four dragons'' in East Asia. In the late 1990s, the Taiwanese government set up a ``Go South policy'' to strengthen and expand the relationships in trade and investment between Taiwan and Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam. The results gained from the process of implementing the ``Go South policy'' have paved the way for the birth of the ``New Southbound Policy''. In 2016, President Tsai Ing-wen initiated the ``New Southbound Policy''. This policy is people-centered, actively promotes bilateral exchanges and cooperation between Taiwan and countries in Southeast Asia and South Asia in the fields of human resources, manufacturing, and investment. education, culture, tourism, agriculture..., in which special attention is paid to cooperation in education - training and high-level human resource exchange. This policy will create significant impacts on Vietnam's overall relationship with Taiwan, especially in the field of education and human resource development. In Taiwan's perception, Vietnam is the first choice because this is a country with stable economic development, large market ownership and diverse consumer demand. On that basis, the paper focuses on the formation and implementation of Taiwan's ``New Southbound Policy'' on human resources development. In addition, the article assesses the impact of Taiwan's ``New Southbound Policy'' on the present and future cooperation between Taiwan and Vietnam in the field of education.