The UK and France said on Saturday they would mobilize US$4 billion for poor countries by giving up part of a recent IMF allocation of an international reserve asset.
“With this initiative, Britain and France show the necessary solidarity between nations ... I hope all countries that can do it will follow this initiative,” French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said in a statement.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF’s chief, welcomed the plan to help support the streamlined lending for poor countries, which he has called the “innocent victims” of a global crisis not of their making.
“This is incredibly helpful for low-income countries,” Strauss-Kahn told reporters. “It’s a beginning and I hope that other countries including the richest countries in the world will follow the same route.”
The two countries said they would each donate US$2 billion in special drawing rights (SDRs), a special IMF asset, as loan resources to the fund to help support lending to low-income countries hit by the economic crisis.
International aid agency Oxfam International has called for the world’s developed nations to transfer half of their SDRs — equivalent to around US$89 billion — to poor countries as part of broader development financing.
“Rich countries need to go much farther than this 4 billion dollars,” Oxfam International policy adviser Caroline Pearce said after the announcement.
The IMF in July committed to step up concessional lending to poor countries to US$17 billion by 2014 including US$8 billion by 2011.
The UK and France, members of the G7 richest countries, made the announcement after G7 finance chiefs met in Istanbul, Turkey’s financial center, ahead of IMF and World Bank annual meetings next week.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS