Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) yesterday unveiled Taiwan’s debt reduction plan for Haiti, with the Taiwanese government shouldering interest payments to local banks for five years as the Caribbean country struggles to recover from a devastating earthquake in January.
Yang told lawmakers in March that Haiti owed Taiwan, one of its major lenders, US$88 million.
Haiti’s total foreign debt was estimated at US$1 billion before the fatal quake. As the debt-ridden country tries to recover from the disaster, some of its major lenders — including Venezuela and the G7 (Canada, the US, the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Japan) — agreed to cancel all of its debts.
Amid calls from the international community for Taiwan to cancel Haiti’s debts, Yan said the debt repayment plan was the “maximum amount” that Taiwan could “afford.”
“We have told Haitian government about the plan and the Haitian government expressed its appreciation, saying the plan could substantially help it rebuild the country,” Yang said.
The five-year period starts this year, during which Haiti will be exempted from repaying any interest payments and principal to Taiwan. The government will take over the interest payments during this period, which are estimated at US$12 million to US$13 million.
The government and Port-au-Prince will discuss a debt repayment plan after the five-year period.
Yang said Taiwan could not cancel the whole loan owed by Haiti as other lenders did, because the nature and structure of the loan were different from other countries’.
The money lent to Haiti was taken from the nation’s foreign reserves via lending contracts with two commercial banks instead of directly from the treasury. The government could not write off the principal and could only take over payment of the interest, he added.
In related news, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday met with a delegation heading to the Dominican Republic for a forum on Haiti post-quake reconstruction work.
The delegation, led by Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄), will leave on Monday to participate in the forum organized by the UN on Wednesday to discuss post-quake relief and reconstruction work in Haiti.
“It’s not easy for us to participate in this international meeting because the UN is involved,” Ma said at the Presidential Office. “We’ve stressed the legitimacy of the international works we participated in. It’s important for us to do this to improve our reputation. We want to make Taiwan both a responsible and respectable nation in the world.”
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
EVA Air is prohibiting the use of portable chargers on board all flights starting from Saturday, while China Airlines is advising passengers not to use them, following the lead of South Korean airlines. Current regulations prohibit portable chargers and lithium batteries from check-in luggage and require them to be properly packed in carry-on baggage, EVA Air said. To improve onboard safety, portable chargers and spare lithium batteries would be prohibited from use on all fights starting on Saturday, it said. Passengers are advised to fully charge electronic devices before boarding and use the AC and USB charging outlets at their seat, it said. South
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
WAR SIMULATION: The developers of the board game ‘2045’ consulted experts and analysts, and made maps based on real-life Chinese People’s Liberation Army exercises To stop invading Chinese forces seizing Taiwan, board gamer Ruth Zhong chooses the nuclear option: Dropping an atomic bomb on Taipei to secure the nation’s freedom and her victory. The Taiwanese board game 2045 is a zero-sum contest of military strategy and individual self-interest that puts players on the front lines of a simulated Chinese attack. Their battlefield game tactics would determine the theoretical future of Taiwan, which in the real world faces the constant threat of a Chinese invasion. “The most interesting part of this game is that you have to make continuous decisions based on the evolving situation,
RSS