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Taiwan Youth Overseas Service (Alternative Military Service)
MOFA has commissioned the
TaiwanICDF to implement the Taiwan
Youth Overseas Service since 2001.
To date, 14 groups totaling 1,092
servicemen have been dispatched
to partner countries, where they
have assisted Taiwan’s technical and
medical missions on implementing
various projects.
The se r v i ce pe r i od o f t he
Taiwan Youth Overseas Service is
approximately one year, including
around 10 months of actual overseas
service. Servicemen are first required
to complete three weeks of basic
military training and six weeks of
professional and language training
in Taiwan, as well as attend various
courses designed to confirm
personal competencies, including
programs dedicated to cultural
and psychological adaptation, life
management, first aid training, health
care, and disease prevention and
control. Servicemen are in principle
dispatched to serve at medical
and technical missions in countries
that maintain diplomatic relations
with Taiwan, and not to countries
or regions undergoing war or civil
unrest.
In 2014, 86 servicemen were
enrolled into the service’s 14th group,
to work in various fields including
farming, forestry and fisheries
categories such as agriculture and
horticulture, aquaculture, animal
husbandr y, and pest control;
in public health and medicine
categories such as medicine,
dentistr y, medical laborator y
sciences, and public health; in
languages such as Spanish and
French; in management categories
such as economics and trade,
business management, information
management, and tourism; and
in design categories such as
industrial design. Specialisms newly
introduced in 2014 included nutrition,
agrology and life sciences, covering
a broad range of professions. After
completing their initial, six-week
period of professional training,
servicemen were dispatched to 13
technical and medical missions and
18 special projects in 17 countries
throughout Asia-Pacific, Central and
South America, the Caribbean and
Africa in early November 2014.
Since the implementation of this
program to date, the Taiwan Youth
Overseas Service has become a
key element of Taiwan’s overseas
assistance to partner countries,
with the assistance that servicemen
provide in supporting the operations
of the TaiwanICDF’s overseas
technical missions proving to
be significant. Gaining overseas
experience also helps servicemen
to greatly improve their language
skills and professional capacity,
as well as providing a chance to
understand the people and culture
of many different countries, and
gain a better perspective of the
development potential of developing
countries. Many servicemen go on
to become outstanding talents and
take on prime positions relating
to foreign affairs and assistance.
To take the TaiwanICDF as an
example, 95 former servicemen had
participated in the TaiwanICDF’s
domestic or overseas projects as of
the end of 2014, demonstrating the
program’s concrete and sustainable
contribution to the development of
quality human resources in Taiwan.
1 Liao Hsin-yao, an expert in agricultural
marketing working at the Investment and
Trade Service Mission in Central America
through the Taiwan Youth Overseas
Service, assists Guatemala in its agricultural
exporting efforts.
2 Tai Yu-lin, working at the Taiwan Medical
Mission in Burkina Faso through the Taiwan
Youth Overseas Service, assists with an
internal medicine consultation.
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