Taiwan has promised to donate US$1 million to the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Washington sources said Thursday.
At the suggestion of the Bush administration, the sources said, Taiwan's government made the promise in March this year to signify Taiwan's commitment to actively taking part in international activities and paying the international community back for its help in the past.
According to the sources, President George W. Bush has attached great importance to the US role in the global fund. Bush held a joint news conference with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in the White House last May to explain the main purposes of the new fund.
When Bush administration officials sought Taiwan's support for the fund, the sources said, the proposal received an active response from Taiwan's representative to the US Chen Chien-jen (程建人) and director-general of the Department of Health Lee Ming-liang (李明亮). Shortly afterwards, the sources said, Taiwan's government offered to make the US$1 million donation to the fund.
The US government has pledged to donate up to US$500 million between 2001 and 2003, making the United States the largest donor to the special fund.
Statistical reports released by the fund showed that about 30 countries and institutions around the world have promised to donate a total of US$1.92 billion to the fund. Three other countries -- Kuwait, Austria and Zimbabwe -- have offered to donate the same amount of money as Taiwan.
Japan is so far the only East Asian donor country other than Taiwan, pledging to donate up to US$200 million. The charity foundation set up by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates will donate US$100 million.
The global fund said it will begin to appropriate money to help finance various disease prevention and treatment projects this year, resulting in a 50 percent increase in the total budget for prevention of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in developing countries.
According to the fund, about 40 million people around the world have been infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In 2001 alone, 5 million people contracted HIV, with more than 95 percent of them living in developing countries. In seven sub-Saharan African countries, more than 20 percent of the population is infected with HIV.
The fund said AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria claim 6 million lives every year.
The proposal to set up an international fund to fight the three diseases was first broached at the G-8 summit held in Okinawa, Japan in July 2000. The proposal received the unanimous support of all the participating countries to a UN-sponsored anti-AIDS meeting last June.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
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