Nantou County Two Lakes Forum yields fruitful results, frequent exchanges in tourism and agriculture

County council regular session members concerned about the effectiveness of the Two Lakes Forum

The Nantou County Council convened the first regular session of the 18th term on the 10th for the county government general interpellation. Nantou County Councilor Lo Mei-ling raised questions about the effectiveness of the Two Lakes Forum. Deputy County Magistrate Chen Cheng-sheng stated that the Two Lakes Forum has been held jointly by the two places on a rotating basis for six consecutive years with fruitful results. In addition to personnel exchanges and interactions between the two sides, the substantive benefits also include the number of tourists from Zhejiang to Nantou exceeding one million and the sales of agricultural specialty products and other concrete results.

Nantou County Deputy Magistrate Chen Cheng-sheng stated that the Two Lakes Forum selects a discussion theme each year, mainly focusing on tourism, agriculture, education, culture, and community as the main axes of discussion. Last year's forum held at West Lake focused on community development exchanges. This year, Nantou will host it, scheduled to be held at Nan Kai University of Technology in September, with the theme of in-depth tourism exchange and cooperation between the two places.

Over the years, the exchange and cooperation topics between Nantou and Hangzhou through the Two Lakes Forum have progressed from tourism, agriculture, education, and community to cultural and creative industries, including arts exhibitions and cultural exchange visits. The "Two Lakes Forum" conducts discussions on related industry topics in these areas. Through the exchange of opinions among industry, government, and academia, many concrete conclusions and new ideas are often obtained.

Deputy Magistrate Chen emphasized that the exchange results between Nantou and Hangzhou have gradually taken root in many corners of both cities. In addition to personnel interactions, cultural exchanges, community visits, and many invisible influences, there are even more concrete results, including tourist numbers exceeding one million, agricultural expo and sales exhibitions in Zhejiang and Hangzhou, the signing of agricultural product procurement, transportation, and sales trade contracts, and cooperation memoranda and other substantive benefits. These are all achievements of the Two Lakes Forum and the main force that keeps the exchanges between Nantou and Zhejiang stable and continuous, like a communication and exchange platform providing opportunities for both sides to cooperate in promoting industrial development.

In addition, regarding the issue of normal class placement in junior high schools, County Councilor Wu Kuo-chang also asked County Magistrate Lin Ming-chen for his views. Magistrate Lin stated that he has always supported the educational policy of normal class placement. Regarding these issues, he will ask the Department of Education to conduct a comprehensive review and improvement to enhance parents' confidence in Nantou County's education. As for children with low academic achievement, Magistrate Lin also stated that tutoring should be strengthened so that children can develop in a balanced way, or vocational and technical special classes should be established for those with special talents to cultivate talent.

Peng Ya-ling, Director of the Nantou County Department of Education, also emphasized that a remedial teaching and tutoring system has been established for low-achieving children, but the most important thing is to enhance teachers' teaching abilities. Teaching methods should no longer be oriented toward advancing to higher education; new concepts should be introduced, and flexible flipped teaching should be carried out according to children's characteristics to enhance the county's educational capacity.