President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) will visit the Dominican Republic to deliver aid for victims of last week’s earthquake that devastated the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, the Presidential Office said yesterday.
Ma will visit Honduras from Monday through Jan. 30 and had been weighing the possibility of visiting the Dominican Republic to express the nation’s support to the victims.
Ma is scheduled to make a one-night stopover in San Francisco before heading to the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, and is expected to make a short stopover in Los Angeles on the way back to Taiwan.
The Presidential Office said Ma would visit the Dominican Republic on Jan. 28 after attending the inauguration of Honduran president-elect Porfirio Lobo Sosa the previous day. During his short stay in the Dominican Republic, Ma is scheduled to meet Dominican President Leonel Fernandez Reyna to discuss assistance for Haiti.
Ma’s delegation will include the heads of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Council of Agricultural Affairs, the Overseas Compatriots Affairs Council, as well as the deputy legislative speaker and three lawmakers.
First lady Chow Mei-ching (周美青) will not accompany her husband on this visit.
Chou has not made an appearance or made any comment regarding the plight Haitians.
Ma also intends to visit Ambassador to Haiti Hsu Mien-sheng (徐勉生) and Consul Chi Wang-teh (齊王德), both of whom are hospitalized in the Dominican Republic’s capital, Santo Domingo.
They were sent there to receive medical attention after being dug out of the debris in Port-au-Prince.
Meanwhile, speaking to a women’s group in Taipei yesterday, Ma acknowledged that Taiwan had been asked to pardon some of the debt owed to it by Haiti as a way to help the country get back on its feet.
Ma said he had instructed MOFA to evaluate the feasibility of the option.
Reports say that Haiti still owes US$641 million in external debt. Taiwan and Venezuela are reportedly Haiti’s two biggest creditors and the sum held by the two countries equals roughly half that amount.
MOFA spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) said canceling debt was only one of the many methods Taiwan could use to help with long-term rehabilitation, adding that Taiwan was already engaged in a number of humanitarian projects in Haiti.
Chen refused to disclose the exact amount Haiti owes to Taiwan.
A source familiar with Taiwan’s foreign affairs said that for the moment, Taiwan appeared non-committal to the debt reduction plan proposed by France, adding that the government would most likely agree to forgive a part of the debt either shortly before or during Ma’s trip.
The announcement could also come during a meeting between Ma and Haitian President Rene Preval in Santo Domingo, the source said.
In a TV interview on Monday, Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said Preval would be happy to meet Ma, adding that the details of a possible meeting were still being hammered out.
While some commentators have said that writing off Haiti’s debt could be a win-win strategy for both presidents, who are in desperate need of bolstering their public support, others are reluctant to call it a viable solution.
Soochow University political science professor Luo Chih-cheng (羅致政) said the government must carefully contemplate any request for debt relief from Taiwan’s allies because “the others might ask for the same thing and the question will be: Do we have the financial ability to say yes?”
He said that the country’s national deficit was dangerously high, which made it doubtful that Taiwan had enough muscle to forgive its allies’ debts as well as bring down its deficit.
In related news, Taiwan’s first search and rescue team dispatched to Haiti has completed its work and will return home on Friday. The 22-person team and two rescue canine found two survivors during their mission.
A second 33-person team of health workers and aid personnel remain in Haiti.
So far, Taiwan has pledged US$5 million in cash donations to Haiti, as well as other supplies such as medicine, medical equipment, food, water, clothes and blankets.
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