Besides, such financial aid projects have only caused business tycoons to travel to the recipient nation for sightseeing, rather than seeking efficient investment opportunities.
In the long run, Taiwanese business owners started to complain and our allied governments became plagued with scandal.
The government has stressed that the "Jung Pang Project" will no longer provide direct financial aid to our allies, but rather consolidate the nation's diplomatic allies by providing an incentive for Taiwanese businessmen to invest in the region. However, Taiwan's trade volume with Central American nations remains scarce and the region is far away. Therefore, whether it really pays to make a large investment in that region is something to consider.
Domestically, the biggest controversy regarding this project lies in the legitimacy of such an aid fund and the lack of effective supervision. We can tell that although the government has sought to think out of the box this time by stopping direct monetary aid to allies, it has still failed to cooperate with Taiwan's businesses to plan the whole strategy from a global perspective and effectively implement that policy.
Since "dollar diplomacy" is becoming outdated, the government must review its approach to supporting our allies and should understand what our allies need. The nation's trading strategy should be integrated with a commercial strategy for expanding into overseas markets in order to provide a coherent channel for financial aid and create a win-win situation.
Tsai Zheng-jia is an assistant research fellow at the Institute of International Relations at National Chengchi University.
TRANSLATED BY DANIEL CHENG
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