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Taiwan must be more active on the world stage: Ma

Taiwan must become a more active player in resolving global challenges such as poverty and gender discrimination, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday, adding that future foreign aid projects should be conducted in a transparent manner to shake off the nation’s “checkbook diplomacy” image.

Speaking at the offices of the International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF), a body affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ma said that future foreign aid projects must have “proper goals, legitimate procedures and effective execution.”

The nation’s diplomacy, he said, must send the message that Taiwan has an “honorable and clean” government.

“I often joke with ambassadors that they can say the incumbent Taiwanese president is different. Due process and clean government are very important to him,” he said, adding that as a developed nation, every penny spent by the government must be closely scrutinized.

Citing a report in the Financial Times last week that alleged Beijing paid US$1.3 billion to buy Costa Rica’s loyalty last year, Ma said such negative news is a discredit to both Beijing and Taipei and serves as a reminder that Taiwan must handle its foreign aid projects cautiously to ensure its resources are spent in a proper and magnanimous manner.

Ma said Taiwan should express its gratitude for all the humanitarian aid it received between 1950 and 1965 by giving back to the international community, recalling a time when he stood in line at a church to receive bread and butter donated by other countries.

Currently, Taiwan’s donates 0.142 percent of its overall GDP in foreign aid, a figure that Ma said he hopes to increase to 0.7 percent, the amount the UN recommends.

ICDF Secretary-General Chen Lien-gene (陳連軍) said in a report that since its inception in 1996, the ICDF has provided humanitarian aid and technical assistance to more than 30 countries.

To date, the ICDF has dispatched 410 health workers to 19 countries to provide medical services. The ICDF also offers various training courses in Taiwan for foreign personnel in subjects such as management, agriculture and aquaculture techniques, environmental protection and media studies, the report said.
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