To education, man has enjoyed a close relationship with taiwan. Today we are delighted and honored to have the director of the commercial office of the sultan of oman in taiwan. He will review with us the state of relations up until now. Welcome. Thank you. Like i said there are many people in taiwan and have had a longstanding relationship with the sultan. A lot of us, i self included, do not know much about your beautiful country. Can we start off todays program by asking you give us a comprehensive overview of your country, including the size of the population, the land, and the climate. Thank you very much for this opportunity. The sultanate of oman is one of the most beautiful countries and strategically located countries. We are located at the far southeast corner of the arab peninsula. As you know, we are in the indian ocean and the arabian gulf. We are strategically located. The go to the arabian gulf, most of the arabian oil passes through. Very important. We are the only open country to be on the ocean and the arabian peninsula. Oman has a population of 3. 3 Million People, not that many. About the size of taipei. It is much bigger then taiwan. We are 310,000 square kilometers. The climate, because we are a bigger country, the climate is variable, it is not the same in one area to another. In summertime, when it is almost 45 degrees in the northern part of oman it will be around 18 to 23 degrees in the south. In the south there is a settlement area that has seasons during the summertime. In october the south is cooling down. The heat goes to the north and central part of oman. On the eastern side is also cooler. The telegraph of oman is not as the topographic of oman is not what people think. We have the cultural everywhere in oman. We have a lot of mountains. And desert. It is a youthful country. What is the capital city of the sultanate of all man. What is the population . 600,000. 1 5 of the total population is there. What is the state, in your opinion, what is the state of relations between the sultanate of all man and taiwan . We are treated partners. We have been here for some time now. We are trying our best to promote Corporation Investments and trade in oman. We have been successful in some areas. More successful in others area the let me ask you, what are the areas attractive to taiwanese Business People . I think most areas will be attracted attractive to the taiwanese. The taiwanese are reluctant to go other places and venture into new territories. The other reason is taiwanese investments are politically agreed. When it comes to countries outside of china. People go to china because of the cultural relations and language and so on. There is usually little political agreement outside of china. When they are told south they go south. A. B. They will need some direction maybe they will need some direction. That would be helpful. I would imagine that your country is resourcerich. It has to be a lot of Business Opportunities and Investment Opportunities available for taiwan. For example, in a manufacturing thomas and also in Service Areas in manufacturing and also Service Areas, give us an example of a successful taiwanese investment and Economic Cooperation between our two countries. Most people are reluctant. We do have a lot of opportunities. We have an attractive system to attract taiwanese but they are reluctant to go. It is not from our site. We are doing our best to promote our country. We have been here always. There is a lot of opportunity. We have a very attractive investment system. Another of incentives we have a number of incentives we can provide. What kind of incentive programs are available . Tax subsidies . Employee supplies or labor supplies . Are those some of the incentive programs you have in mind . Yes, we do. For example, we have 3 million which are taxfree. They can provide taxfree benefits up to 30 years. Regarding the employees of the workforce very sound, the Banking System in oman. It allows you to bring in your capital and take it out whenever you wish. You will have the corporations console market in your area. The system allows you you can exploit it to the others. Oman is also a member of the arab trade agreement, which has another 18 members. Without talking about a market of 300 Million People of 3 Million People, we are very close to measure markets. We are just a two hours flight from mumbai. In the central part of oman we have a central free zone. This is very close to india. Shipping by bear or by sea is also easy. It is also close to the African Party member. You will see that oman is just a five hours flight from oman to the other countries. We are close to the central issue. We are much closer to taiwan been to europe. They used to make a stopover in your country or neighboring countries before going onto europe europe. They used to. Nowadays they have changed that. Was such an important location, what are the Priority Industries . If you look into taiwanese exports youll find machineries, construction materials. We have a lot of construction going on. All sorts of construction materials. The construction manufacturing would be one of them. Automobile parts, you are talking about some prices for machinery. Anything can go there. Plus, our area is a highly educated area. All of our universities are affiliated to the united kingdom. Our education is very sound. They can handle anything. We will talk about the egg situation exchanges with taiwan and little later. Before we end this part of the program, what are some of the things that you think we can do to try to promote the trading between our two countries . You say a lot of Business People go to china because it is closer geographically, the language, the culture, but a lot of people may not know about your beautiful country. What can we do on our part to try to promote that relationship . We are already doing one of the two things, using the mass media. Sending tv groups is another way to promote. One problem usually for the taiwanese people, they will look for ron material. For ron material. For raw material. How can we create a value for our product if you do not have interest in our country . We need to say i am going to produce this product in your country. Those who invest in our country are going to create a value added for our product. This is the problem, people just look to buy. In the longterm. We need to take the first break on our program. When we come back we will continue this fascinating conversation with the director of the commercial office of the sultanate of oman in taiwan area in taiwan. Welcome back to the second segment of todays program. We will continue our conversation with mr. Sulaiman almughairy. We understand that the sultanate of all man is a beautiful country with a rich history, it has many beautiful sites to attract tourists and promote the tourism business. Ecan y us a little bit about some of the more attractive destinations for tourists from taiwan to visit in your beautiful country . Sure, oman in general is a beautiful country. Would i recommend usually to people is they visit every part of oman. Most of oman is very beautiful. It is very historical. You cannot go to a place in oman that is not historical. We have very attractive areas. It depends on what tourists are looking for, if they are looking for history we do have historic al sites. We have a lot of historic over 700 . Over 500. We do have a lot of attractive coastlines and shopping malls. It depends on what the tourists are looking for. If they are looking for adventures we do have a lot of mountains. That part can also be an attractive part of tourism for taiwanese investors to go. As you know oman is very attractive these days. We are expecting them to be one of the major tourist destinations in the future. We do provide a lot of opportunities for investors coming from abroad, whatever related to the tourism industry. We would like to invite the taiwanese people to go there and explore the possibility of investing in oman. This is the future. As you know, tourism mostly never dies. Collects it will still continue. It. Continue. What is the number of taiwanese tourists echo to oman every year . Not that much. It is around 1000 plus. We do not have direct flights. That is one major reason why the tiny why the taiwanese do not go. From hong kong . Ng kok, hong kong, there are no direct flights. This is one of the reasons it is a handicap. Yes. We do have groups in some countries that are organizing groups to visit more than one country. They go in a package to visit oman, to buy, the run, and so on oman, dubai, iran, and so on. To many parts of the world, is the sultanate of oman a place we can go to without a visa . We have been one of the first countries that have issued taiwanese landing visas. We issued taiwanese landing visas in the past nine years. Nowadays, that is why i cannot give you a correct number of taiwanese visitors because most people ok. They just go and do not get the visa. There are forms you can get through the internet and connect your visas. When they do the landing visa, how long can they stay in oman . Usually one month. What would be the recommended time for tourists, like myself, if i were planning on a trip to your beautiful country along with my family and friends. How long would you recommend . Five days, seven days . We would like you to stay longer. The maximum is chinese new years. Just travel from one area to the other. If you would like to enjoy oman properly, stay at least a month. Get me a job out there. Let me ask you this, regarding the kinds of Tourist Attractions that are available, i noticed that there are some of them on the u. N. Mess goals u. N. Heritage list. Can you tell us what some of those are so that people who are watching our program can be attracted to visiting your country. We have for unesco sites. We can provide you some information regarding them and why they have been chosen as unesco. Most parts of oman continued to be unescos sites. We have a lot of historical sites. Some of them are still underground. In the future, that is why i am telling you oman is going to be one of the major tourist attraction areas because we do have historical sites that have not yet been renovated and excavated and so on. Taiwanese investors they should think about us. In addition to some of the Historic Sites you have mentioned, well so understand there are some local activities and festivals that tourists can attend to. For example, bullfighting. Can you tell us some of the unique characteristics of these activities. We do have camel racing. It happens from every december, usually in the wintertime. Is attractive in many forms. It is totally different from the bullfighting. We do not kill bulls. Usually there will be two bullfighting. Whenever one runs away that is it. People do not that on them. Do not bet on them. Our country is just for fun. It is usually every weekend. How about the camel racing that happens every weekend . Usually it is every month. Doesnt become international . With there be other camel teams coming in to participate in the races . Usually local. But not yet international . No. After visiting your beautiful country, well would be some of the local products that you would recommend for the tourist to buy and bring home with . We do have a lot of handicrafts. We are very good in gold and necklaces and medicines. Many other items that are handmade by people. You have been the director at the commercial office here for many years. What would be some of the things you plan on doing for this year, 2013, in terms of promoting tourism to this country . Can you share that with us . Lex we are participating in every single exhibition. Good. Clocks we are members of an tour. It is an association of foreign tourists. We have almost a tour 80 countries that are members. Usually i am represented by the secretarygeneral for the past 14 years. We are very active. We go to Industrial Zones and other places promoting our countries in a joint effort. Usually we travel as we are. We also participate in the International Travel fares in all of taiwan. The audience reception to some of the tradeshows you do, what would be the consideration for the taiwanese tourists before they make a decision to go to your beautiful country . Is it because we do not yet have direct flights . Or it could be a bit more expensive to visit your country. Those considerations are valid. The reason there has not been many tourists to your country, could that be the reason . I think it is because of the knowledge of the area. That is why we are trying our best to promote our countries and much more. People think that when they talk about arab countries they think of a very dangerous area. There is no freedom and so many of these talks with quick these talks and exceptions. And exceptions. It is a firmly people. Oman is one of the countries that is very peaceful and our people are very friendly. The culture is very close to the taiwanese culture. This is what we are trying to do. Me and my colleagues, we are speaking to students. We are trying to speak to them to introduce our country. The students are going to be the future leaders of taiwan. This is what we are trying to do, introducing oman through another generation. They think the old generation already has their own ideas. They are talking about changing the paradigm. It is difficult to change. The good thing is to try and bring new things to the generations. We need to take another break and we will be right back. Welcome back to the program. We will continue our conversation with the director of the commercial office of the sultanate of all man in taiwan. We understand that your office is being established in taiwan since 1991. Over the last 22 years the office has performed many different functions and has provided Many Services to people who are interested in doing business or travel or even learning and education in your beautiful country. Can you tell us about the functions and the roles your office place in terms of promoting and maintaining the lies maintaining the ties . Promoting a lot, are doing a lot of promotion. It is on a daily basis. We do have a website. Last year we had 60,000 visitors to our website. We do speeches and investment. Whenever we are effected by the trade associations. We try to build our relation between the institutions, the educational institutions, between oman and taiwan. I think the future is there. You teach at a local university. May i ask, what would be the subject area for the students who may be interested in studying taiwan . What would be the areas they love to pursue. Art or engineering. Or mathematics. Engineering would be an attractive information technology, in medical it would be attractive. Coming from oman to taiwan. We had some taiwanese that went to oman. We are trying to initiate more exchanges of this sort. Unfortunately museums are mostly grouped are mostly booked throughout the year and it is very difficult. Whenever we received an invitation ok. Let us get back to the education. We understand that there is not many students studying on the other side. You and i talked before the taping started, there was a one time group of all money students coming to taiwan of all money of oman students coming to taiwan. Are we going to see more of the students coming to taiwan . Will be institutions be able to provide the kinds of training and Educational Programs that they need . We should. I am foreseeing a good future. Recently we had five University Professors who came to taiwan from oman. There had been some discussion among employing them at the universities. If something were to come out of this they go sheesh and or beatings, from this negotiation or beatings. They are Offering High education postgraduate degrees in english. Usually the language barrier is a problem. For the taiwanese to go into oman, it can also be we welcome them for sure. Oman is a High Education system. Fate. Education system full of faith. If there is any taiwanese willing to go to a different country other than australia or somewhere, they can maybe try to go to oman. And they can enroll in universities that are affiliated with australian or american universities. Let me ask you, do most often Young Students look forward to studying abroad . Maybe not necessarily to taiwan, but today go to universities in europe or north america . What is the percentage of younger oman that look forward to studying overseas. It has become easier. We have a lot of students studying abroad. We still have a few of them that are insisting to go abroad. We have a lot of students studying in the United States of america. In the uk, malaysia, india. We have students all over the world. The majority nowadays as i said before, the universities in oman mostly affiliated to other countries. When somebody is looking for a uk affiliated university, they can find it at home. Why go to europe when you can have the same thing in oman . The same thing applied to the american system. We have american diversity affiliated universities. We have universities affiliated with american universities. People prefer to stay home near their families. Can we talk a little bit about the educational system . In terms of secondary levels, do you have it similar to taiwan . For example, six Years Elementary School and then three years of middle school and also three Years High School . Is that similar . Yes. We have six plus three plus three. We have five years at this level. It is used my life was conditional it was usually conditional. They need more background in english language. Writing, speaking, so on and so on. That way they can go to the second level and take four years studying upwards, easily. You and i were talking that the official line which in oman is arabic. This is also an educational language the educational language is primarily english. How do you think of most of the students coming from overseas, how would you think it is easy or difficult for them to pick up english so they can learn in school but also i was your society where everybody speaks arabic . It is not easy to learn. This one of of the reasons why the taiwanese students might not look to going abroad and studying in oman. One of the reasons. A different culture. As we sit they do not know about our countries. They need more. They need to know we can provide the same quality of education. The arab language is not the most difficult. Youre very good at mandarin. We do have some local universities that offered the department of arabic language pop language. D. C. These graduates thinking of going over to study at oman in the future . I know you travel to different universities around taiwan. Them, do maybe they come up to you and ask what are the opportunities available to them since they are up majoring arabic language . A change in university . We have been talking to them and simply they talk to one of the universities and the possibilities there. We do have a Higher Institute for oman culture and language. I think we need to work on that and find some opportunity for taiwanese students to go and study. I think what is important throughout the program today is the lack of understanding for a lunch people here in taiwan. In the future there are a lot of things that you can do to try to promote mutual understanding. We need to take our final brick on the program and we will be right back. Look back to the final block of todays program. I am your host. We will continue and hopefully wrap up this interesting conversation with the director of the commercial office of the sultanate of all men in taiwan. You have been in taiwan for nearly 17 years. You first arrived back in 1995. What was your first impression, if i may ask . It was totally a new country to me. There was a lot of rain and a lot of people. It was a lot of traffic. It used to take me around one hour. Indeed. That was totally different from my country. Hell about the climate . The climate is different from back home because it is a lot more humid around here. We have a lot more rain. All year round, especially in the summer months. Was that an issue for you to adjust . No, we like the sort of environment. We come from a very triarea. A lot of rain area. For the first three weeks we have rain. Too much of a good thing may not be a good thing. Over the last 17 years, there has been a lot of changes in taiwan. You mentioned that at the time you first arrived, there was a lot of traffic at the time in the system. There was a lot of construction along the way. Nowadays the system is running very well. It is one of the better systems in the world. It is also a big part of the transportation in taipei. Other than the infrastructure upgrade you have seen, what of the other changes that have taken place over the years in taiwan . A lot of changes. Transportation, a lot of changes. They did not have checking carrying the they have collective areas. There was nothing. We did not have much of construction. Lex when you first arrived when you first arrived, there mustve been something you have to do with your family in terms of assimilating to the local lifestyle . Nowadays it is not an issue because mandarin and chinese is very good. Food is very different from maybe what you are used to, compared to back home. Hell about the other things like the daily routines of the people, where their major adjustments you had to make . Collects they are adaptable to the food. Back home i used to go to the streams and so on. When my kids were coming here, it was a very big issue. They did not adapt for it until now. Whenever we go somewhere, mostly when they come to taiwan they will eat fast food. Mcdonalds, kentucky, so on. They never got adapt to the change. It was an issue. But nowadays they go out. For myself it was a bit unadjusted. Trying to shake hand with this guy. Made this mistake. This is a simple adjustment to have to make. Otherwise it is mostly similar. The people of very hospitable. They were not much of the sandpoint. Because i am driving myself . I used to get lost and good to some areas and finally i could not go back home. This guy tries to find someone who speaks english or just show them the sign. They would ride their motorcycles. From the highway that is very nice. They are very kind people. Have been in this situation for many years. Nowadays i have artie become like a taiwanese. Nowadays you have the sand you have the which are mostly in english. In the last 17 years you have traveled extensively around taiwan. Do you have a favorite destination you keep going back to . What was your impression of the island . Many people say that you have seen taipei do you have the sense that different parts of the island have a different sense of the culture of the people . I think the culture is changing. A lot more cosmopolitan. You can see taipei is representing taiwan because it is totally different than parts of taiwan. In certain areas, we are going to see in taipei were going to see in other other areas will be seen taipei. I go hiking and so on. Out of the data i was given, you like to fish, you like to host barbecue parties, you like to read and write your bicycles. What do you normally do after 17 years in taiwan . What do you normally do for the weekends and holidays . I go hiking. Nowadays i live in the mountains so i do not have much else to do. I does hike in the mountains nearby. I also ride a bicycle. Sometimes i host barbecue parties with many friends and so on. It is the same activities. You have to keep yourself busy. Yes indeed. Some people do not mingle. I have a lot of friends here. Just by having you on the program i can see you a very outgoing personality. We were asking you earlier about the other Favorite Places you have been to around taiwan. For example, the east coast, you like the mountains. He has a very different fountain range. Do you find a comparable . I like parts of taiwan. Fishing, for example, in the summertime we usually go fishing at night. I have a group of friends of mine and we go over night from six to six. We take a boat and go to the sea, for at least 12 hours. We have this sort of hobby. We certainly would like to see you stay in taiwan as long as you can. If you get reassigned to a different post and people ask you how was your 17 years in taiwan, how would you describe your experience in taiwan, working and living on the island since 1995 . Collects it is a wonderful experience. Taiwan is my second home. I have more friends here because i have been away for a long time. I created more friends here. When i go home nowadays i miss taiwan because i feel like it is home. If we have younger people who are watching our program today and if they may be interested in the career of becoming a diplomat for taiwan, based on your experience what would be different when they should to them what would be your recommendation to them . I am not a diplomat. In terms of representing what could you suggest for them to be prepared for similar things in the future . Everybody who wants to work abroad should be adaptable and adventurous. If you are not willing to be adapted to the different cultures than it will be difficult for you. My colleagues, for example, i had three people. They could not get adapted to the culture here. You have to be adaptable. You have to learn how to deal with and create new activities and have more friends and go out. Otherwise you will always be thinking about home, mom is cooking, and so on. That is not good. Education is helping with that. People should be looking young people should be looking to have as high a possible level of education. Before he close up the program, if we ask you to overall described and try to promote the ties between our two countries, what would be the one thing you emphasize to our audience . I would like them to rethink about the south. I would like for the taiwanese people to think about the situation. To not only think about buying raw material but think about creating a value added for both sides. By creating value added projects it will last longer. We will guarantee that is continuing and the stability of your business. Thank you very much for being a special guest on our program. We want to wish you and your family all of the best in the future. Thank you. I will see you next time. avoiding a bigger trade dispute. China and the eu moved closer to an agreement on the solar panel industry. Im phillip yin in washington. Im Michelle Makori in times square in new york. 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