Taiwan has signed a memorandum of understanding with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to become a founding member of a fund to promote gender equality, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
The announcement of Taiwan joining the Action for Equality and Gender Multi-donor Cooperation Fund (A4EG) came a day after the document was signed by Sharon Wu (吳尚年), director-general of the ministry’s Department of International Organizations, and Otto Camilia, the bank’s director of donor cofinancing, at an event in Taipei, the ministry said.
Ministry officials and a seven-member EBRD delegation led by bank Secretary-General Kazuhiko Koguchi discussed cooperation on aid to Ukraine and facilitating economic links between Taiwan and developing economies, Wu said.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
A4EG is to be dedicated to promoting gender equality and the economic well-being of underprivileged groups, particularly those living in Ukraine, she said.
The officials also discussed plans to facilitate cooperation between Taiwan and developing economies in areas such as information technology, smart city programs and information security, she said.
The EBRD, established in 1991 and headquartered in London, is one of the most important financial institutions for multilateral development serving countries in central and eastern Europe, central and west Asia, and north Africa, where it has invested more than 160 billion euros (US$165.98 billion) in more than 6,000 projects.
Taiwan has participated in more than 400 EBRD initiatives through the ministry-run International Development and Cooperation Fund since 1991, providing more than 250 million euros for technical cooperation projects and investment cofinancing.
Additional reporting by CNA
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
ALLEGED SABOTAGE: The damage inflicted by the vessel did not affect connection, as data were immediately rerouted to other cables, Chunghwa Telecom said Taiwan suspects that a Chinese-owned cargo vessel damaged an undersea cable near its northeastern coast on Friday, in an alleged act of sabotage that highlights the vulnerabilities of Taipei’s offshore communications infrastructure. The ship is owned by a Hong Kong-registered company whose director is Chinese, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. An unidentified Taiwanese official cited in the report described the case as sabotage. The incident followed another Chinese vessel’s suspected involvement in the breakages of data cables in the Baltic Sea in November last year. While fishing trawlers are known to sometimes damage such equipment, nation states have also
RSS