【Reported by Min-Hua Wu, Tamkang Times】President Flora Chia-I Chang travelled to South America from April 20th to April 30th to visit universities in Chile and the Republic of Paraguay. She was accompanied by Dean of the College of Foreign Languages and Literature, Hsi-deh Wu, Dean of the Office of Foreign Affairs, Pei-Wha Chilee, Dean from the Graduate Institute of the Americas, Hsiao-chuan Chen, Dean of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Hui-huang Hsu, and Professor of the Department of Spanish, Kwo-wei Kung. President Chang expressed, “In addition to cultivating and strengthening the exchange relationship between Tamkang University and University of Chile, we also signed an an agreement with the National University of Asuncion in Paraguay, making them an official sister school of TKU. The purpose of this trip was to deepen the connection between our countries.”

Upon their arrival on April 21st, they were greeted at the airport by TKU alumni and Ambassador of the Office of Taipei Economics and Culture in Chile, Ming-wen Wang. They visited the University of Chile on the 22nd and signed an agreement to renew the student exchange program between the two institutions with President V. Perez Vera. The two universities have a great distance between them, but maintain a very close and intimate academic exchange.

On April 24th they headed to the Republic of Paraguay and were welcomed by Ambassador Jose Maria Liu and Dr. Juan B. Ramirez. Last year in May, former President Federico Franco came to visit TKU which initiated the relationship between the two countries. In addition to creating and strengthening new ties, the TKU officials were given a tour of the many beautiful and scenic areas on their trip. On April 28th they had a meeting with the Vice President Juan Afara and afterwards they signed an exchange agreement at National University of Asuncion in Paraguay with University President Pedro Gonzalez, establishing the academic exchange and crystallizing the new relationship.