The government has signed two memorandums of understanding (MOU) with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) for two of its investment funds, reaffirming Taiwan’s commitment to the global organization, Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) said yesterday.
Leading a group of senior bank officials on a three-day visit to Taiwan, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development president Thomas Mirow and Yang signed an MOU for Taiwan to contribute US$4 million in two years to replenish the Taiwan-EBRD technical cooperation fund.
Mirow and International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF) secretary-general Tao Wen-lung (陶文隆) also signed an MOU for the ICDF to put US$80 million in 10 years into the bank’s Green Energy Special Fund.
Taiwan’s renewed commitment and increased financial contribution was “very welcome news” for the bank and its country of operation when the global financial crisis compelled many of its donors to reconsider their funding and strategies, Mirow said.
The signing of the two MOUs “signify a new milestone to our cooperation,” he said.
Mirow said the technical cooperation fund would help the bank prepare and implement its investment projects efficiently and effectively, while the Green Energy Special Fund would be used to finance development of green technology and encourage its clients to adopt green energy by providing loans with concessional interest rates.
The visit by Mirow and his delegation coincided with the 20th anniversary of the organization’s inception in 1991 and its cooperation with Taiwan since its founding.
“For two decades, Taiwan and the EBRD have worked together to promote democracy and economic development in its countries of operation. Although some challenges remain, we have made some progress. For example, we have seen important improvements in the business climate and living standards in these countries,” Yang said.
Yang said the partnership between Taiwan and the EBRD was not limited to technical cooperation and co-financing programs.
“Rather, it is also about the broader participation of Taiwan’s private sector in EBRD countries, as well as sharing our development experiences,” he said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching