The board of Taiwan's International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF) passed a total budget of US$29.4 million last month to finance nine foreign aid programs to assist Taiwan's diplomatic allies over the next fiscal year, sources said yesterday.
But ICDF officials said Vice President Annette Lu (
"She [Lu] is not going to discuss details [of these programs] there. If she does talk about the aid programs, she will only touch upon some principles," said Lee Pai-po (李柏浡), ICDF's assistant secretary-general.
The ICDF planned to grant US$8 million to finance an education program in Guatemala, and to offer another US$3 million to assist a tourism plan in Belize, Lee said.
Andrew Chang (張雲屏), deputy spokesman at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), said Lu would not be bringing a signed check to Guatemala or Belize. "The two countries have not been informed of the ICDF's decision to assist these two programs. So Lu is only to pass the message to them regarding the ICDF's final decision," said Chang.
"The vice president will not sign any agreement nor memorandum of understanding during her trip, either," Chang added.
Lu's trip to El Salvador, Honduras, Belize and Guatemala began yesterday and will last until Oct. 1. Lu said last week that she would not be engaging in money diplomacy, a criticism often leveled at the government.
The ICDF's annual budget for the next fiscal year was released yesterday, following related reports from Ettoday.com, an Internet newspaper based in Taiwan, on the ICDF's latest foreign aid plans.
When asked by the Taipei Times, Lee confirmed that the board of the ICDF agreed last month to finance nine programs with a total budget of US$29.4 million for the next fiscal year.
"The board agreed to finance these programs, and we'll need to negotiate with our counterparts in these countries to make final confirmations before implementation of these programs can begin," Lee said. The programs would begin in January.
During his trip to the Dominican Republic last month, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) formally announced the ICDF's plan to offer a total of US$4.6 million to finance that country's parliament modernization program. The plan is one of the nine programs the ICDF would finance during the next fiscal year.
Aside from these programs in Belize, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, the ICDF's overall foreign aid package for next fiscal year includes: US$5 million for construction of a dam in the Kingdom of Swaziland, US$4.8 million for a three-year housing reconstruction project in Nicaragua and US$1 million for an investment scheme in Central America.
The overall plan also includes US$1 million loan projects, one in Gambia, one in Senegal and a third in the Republic of Palau, Lee said.
The ICDF was established in 1996 as part of Taiwan's major institutions evaluating and implementing foreign aid programs.
The organization's predecessor was a management committee of the overseas economic cooperation and development fund, which operated under the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
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