Chan (second left) presents a souvenir to Huang after the courtesy visit at the mayor’s office yesterday.
KUCHING: Kuching South City Council (MBKS) Mayor Dato James Chan believes that Sarawak can learn a lot from Taitung County, Taiwan to strengthen the state’s tourism industry.
According to him, Taitung County managed to attract more than six million visitors last year from its niche in eco-tourism and being free from any polluting factories.
“This has contributed to the prosperity of the area in a short period,” said Chan who received a courtesy call from the Taitung County government led by its governor Justin Huang at his office yesterday.
He further revealed that the county is now a must visit place in Taiwan according to the destinations listed by tour companies in Malaysia.
Commenting on the Alliance for Healthy City (AFHC) conference which will be held in mid October this year, Chan hopes that delegates will be able to exchange and share their knowledge towards making Kuching city a better place to live for everyone.
He is also optimistic that more delegates from Taitung County will attend as there is growing interests among Taiwanese in Kuching.
He noted that Huang had flown into the state capital with his wife on Sunday night to see for themselves what the hype was all about, when members of the AFHC had wanted Kuching to host the conference.
“This is our first time in Kuching city and I am very honoured to be in a city which I have heard so much about,” said Huang.
According to him, delegates from Taitung County would most likely be from the police force, environmental, health, social welfare as well as tourism, culture and arts departments.
“When it comes to health, we from a different part of the world are able to understand a common language,” he added.