The government yesterday pledged to donate US$500,000 to Haiti after the Caribbean ally was struck by a magnitude 7.2 earthquake on Saturday.
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry declared a state of emergency after at least 304 people died in the quake.
More than 1,800 people were injured, the Haitian Civil Protection Agency said.
Photo courtesy of Tainan City Government Fire Bureau
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) expressed her condolences to the Haitian government and its people, and pledged to donate US$500,000 to help with post-disaster relief efforts, Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張淳涵) said yesterday.
Tsai on Twitter said she was saddened by news of the earthquake.
“On behalf of the people & government of Taiwan I want to express our deepest condolences to everyone affected. Taiwan stands ready to assist Haiti in rescue & recovery efforts,” she wrote.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) and Ambassador to Haiti Ku Wen-jiann (古文劍) conveyed Tsai’s condolences to Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs Claude Joseph and Henry respectively, Chang said.
The Ministry of the Interior has a rescue team ready to depart for Haiti as soon as the Haitian government accepts international assistance, he said.
Fifty search-and-rescue personnel, one search-and-rescue dog and 5 tonnes of equipment, including devices to find people buried under rubble, are ready to be dispatched on a charter plane, the National Fire Agency said.
There have been no reports of Taiwanese being injured or killed in the earthquake, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
It called on Taiwanese in Haiti to contact the nation’s embassy if they need assistance.
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
RSS