 Hello viewers and welcome to Issues and Answers, a production of the Government Information Service. I am your host, Jacques Hingson Compton. Today we're going to be talking about the Global Corporative and Training Framework or GCTF Affiliated Event. And with me to talk about this event is the Taiwanese Ambassador to St. Lucia, his Excellency Peter Chen. How are you doing, sir? Thank you. Thank you for having me on the programme. That's not a problem. Okay, so let's start off. Ambassador Chen, to begin with, can you give us a brief introduction into the GCTF Affiliated Event? What is it all about? Yes, certainly. GCTF is a global cooperation and training forum and it is established by the Taiwan government and US government in 2015. As a platform to utilize Taiwan's strengths and expertise to address global issues of mutual concern, why also enhance Taiwan's multilateral cooperation throughout the region. And over the last seven years, the GCTF has held 49 international workshops on such topics as public health, law enforcement, cooperation, women's empowerment, energy efficiency, e-commerce, cybersecurity, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and media literacy. And over 4,500 government officials, experts and civil society representatives from more than 100 countries have participated in this event. And Japan became a full partner to this framework in 2019. And this year, St. Lucia will be the first country in the Caribbean to host physical GCTF Affiliated Event. As you mentioned, St. Lucia, could you talk about the event specifically with regards to St. Lucia? What will be happening here? This year, we were focused on women's empowerment program because after the pandemic, we recognized that women and girls actually suffered the most because of the pandemic. And also, women and girls are the backbone of the recovery of post-COVID. So this year's event will emphasize on women's economic empowerment and were held under the same, pushing inclusive and gender-equal recovery, empowering women in the post-pandemic era. That seeks to raise awareness and broaden support for women in Latin America and the Caribbean. Yeah, that is interesting. What exactly about female empowerment? I don't know if you can speak or detail a little bit more. What exactly about female empowerment would you be talking about? For example, in the forum, we will have two panels. The first panel will explore how women and girls' lives are changing in the face of COVID-19. An outline suggested policy, recommendation and measures for government officials to establish a women's empowerment in every environment in response to both immediate and long-term recovery. And the second panel will take a look at the achievement of a women's empowerment project that is implemented by Taiwan, by the U.S., and the regional organization to showcase their accomplishment and drive more transformative change on the rights of women. Yeah, that's brilliant. Thank you for that. Now, you have brought with you three videos that we're going to introduce onto our program so that our viewers can get a better sense of what you've accomplished over your time with this program. These videos cover an introduction of the GCTF, the achievements of women project, interviews of women who have benefited, and I think one video will just highlight essentially our topic of discussion. So please stay tuned. Take a look at these videos and we'll be back with you in a moment. Thank you for staying with us. I hope you enjoyed those videos. As I said before, I am with the Taiwanese ambassador to St. Lucia, His Excellency Peter Chen, and we're talking about the Global Corporative and Training Framework, or GCTF-affiliated event, geared at empowering women. Now, Mr. Chen, I want to, there are a couple of things I want to discuss. I know you're office-corporated with other entities to put on this event. Can you speak about who the other entities were and what that collaboration was like? This GCTF-affiliated event focused on women's economic empowerment is hosted by my embassy and also U.S. embassy in Barbados and the government of St. Lucia. And since last year, my embassy and government of St. Lucia team up to promote a youth and women empowerment program. And we now already see a lot of outcome. A couple of weeks ago, we have attendees from the vocational training part of the program to attend the Mongol Festival. And we also have the first graduation of all the vocational training program. And yesterday, I just attend the pitching competition for the incubator program. So we see a lot of good outcome. And this program is actually milestone of this program. What was that competition like? Was it something that everyone enjoyed? Was it a great experience? Yeah, I think it's an exciting competition. And I think all the competition combined with exciting and nervous but also achievement. So I'm really glad I can attend that. And I see all the attendees enjoy the competition. And I hope they all the best after the graduation from the program. Now the GCTF event, when and where will that be held? This event will be held at Harbour Club on 26th of August. It's a whole day event. So in the morning, I just mentioned we will have two panels. In the afternoon, there's a site visit and also two breakout section. Can you, I don't know, describe a little bit more about the event? Like who will be in attendance at the event? We will invite speakers and penalties from Taiwan, from the U.S., and from Berlin, Guatemala, Paraguay, and Honduras, and also San Quiz and San Vincent. So it's a regional event and we are really glad that so many countries willing to participate. And we are also honored to have Prime Minister, Honorable Philly JPA, to become one of our speakers, one of our persons to make remarks in the opening ceremony. And we will also have the honor to have Minister Virginia Albert Poyle to be one of the speakers. And also, Minister Albert Baptiste and Minister Emma Hippoly will also make remarks in this event. So we can expect it will be a very successful and very constructive event. Okay, and how does one join the event? How can one participate? This event, we were live streamed and whoever wants to join the event can follow our Facebook page, Taiwan in Salucia, to register for online webinar and workshop. And the whole event will be live streamed online in our Facebook and in NTN. And so we welcome public to join us. Okay, is there anything else you want to add before we come to the end of the program? This is a regional event hosted by my embassy and US embassy and the government of Salucia. And as I said, it's the first physical GCTF event. So I hope it will be a very successful event. And I hope all the attendees can learn something from each other and all the participants can actually come up with a good idea in the future because it's all about empowerment women and recovery from the post pandemic. Well, I want to thank you very much for coming on our program to discuss this very important event, which will be at the Harbour Club August 25th to 27th. So that's for three days. And I hope you get a larger attendance because as I said, it's a very important initiative, very important program. Thank you so much. And I hope everyone will be able to join at that time. Well, and I want to hopefully see you again on the program for any other initiatives or partnerships that our government has with the Taiwanese government. Sure. I would be happy to join. And hopefully my embassy and the government can have more good event that benefits people. I hope so as well. You're watching Issues and Answers, a production of the Government Information Service. I am your host, Jacques St. Compton. Please stay tuned to the National Television Network for programs like this and a lot of other programs focusing on the policies and programs of the government of the day. You can catch us on our YouTube channel and on our Facebook page for all other information relating to government. Thank you for watching. Please stay tuned.