Taiwan’s diplomatic allies have come up with several new cooperative projects that need financial support, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has rejected nearly all of them due to budget shortfalls, according to sources at the government-funded International Cooperation and Development Fund, known as Taiwan ICDF.
Two of those rejected development aid projects were proposed by diplomatic allies in Central and South America, the sources said.
According to Taiwan ICDF records, Taiwan’s cooperative programs with diplomatic allies cover a variety of fields.
For instance, an orchid plantation program was launched in cooperation with a Latin American country, which required more than NT$10 million (US$337,500) annually over a 10-year period. However, the program turned out to be a flop, as it only benefitted 23 farmers.
A 10-year bamboo handicraft development program in another country cost around NT$100 million and benefited only about a dozen farmers there.
Taiwan began to assist the West African country of the Gambia in vegetable and fruit plantation in 1996, but only 3.6 hectares of farmland has since been developed, benefiting just 90 farmers. More than US$1 million was pumped into the project in the past three years alone. It was eventually terminated after the Gambia decided to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan last month.
Taiwan ICDF secretary-general Tao Wen-lung (陶文隆) said many previous aid programs focused on building “Taiwan farms” in Latin American or Caribbean countries.
“Those projects tend to have limited effects and beneficiaries, with production value falling short of 0.1 percent of those countries’ annual agricultural production,” Tao said.
While acknowledging that some aid programs had been closed because of inefficiency or becoming obsolete, Tao said most aid programs are ended only after achieving their original goals.
At the beginning of this year, Taiwan still operated 74 foreign aid programs, but the number will drop to 50 by the end of the year, he said.
Taiwan ICDF has received various development aid applications or technological cooperation proposals, but they have been rejected mostly out of budget considerations, he added.
Among them was a US$30 million plan to establish a satellite image transmission system proposed by a diplomatic ally.
As of the end of last month, 32 Taiwan ICDF officials stationed abroad had returned home due to the end of development aid programs. Twenty-four of them will be reassigned to work in other countries and the remaining eight are to be laid off with their consent, officials say.
Eight more technicians are scheduled to return by the end of this month, when their aid programs conclude.
Ministry officials said recently that despite the termination of diplomatic ties with the Gambia, the government’s three key principles in offering development aid to Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — legitimate goals, legal procedures and effective execution — have remained unchanged.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS