Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) and King Mswati III of Eswatini presided over an unveiling ceremony for an oil reserve facility project Taiwan is to build to enhance the energy resilience of its ally, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Lin and Mswati on Wednesday attended the ceremony for the Strategic Oil Reserve Facility project as part of the top diplomat’s ongoing visit to the southern African country, mainly for the king’s 57th birthday as a special envoy for President William Lai (賴清德), the ministry said in a news release.
Before joining the ceremony, Lin presented Mswati and Queen Mother Ntombi Tfwala a letter from Lai and cows as gifts, it said.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The oil reserve facility project is expected to be completed in three years and is to ensure a 60-day fuel reserve for Eswatini, Taiwan’s embassy wrote on Facebook.
“Once operational, it will help shield the nation from global oil price fluctuations and significantly strengthen its energy security,” it said.
The Overseas Investment & Development Corp (海外投資開發), a Taiwanese company focused on government aid projects overseas, and the Eswatini government signed a memorandum of understanding in September 2023 to build the facility.
Eswatini currently imports all of its oil from South Africa, leaving it susceptible to volatile international crude oil prices, an Eswatini government Web site says.
Earlier on Wednesday, Lin met a baby girl named Taiwan, while pledging an additional US$500,000 in funding for female entrepreneurs in Eswatini.
Lin first met with Eswatini Prime Minister Russell Dlamini, whom he thanked for his country’s support of Taiwan during last year’s UN General Assembly, the ministry said.
Lin then joined Eswatini Deputy Prime Minister Thulisile Dladla at a ceremony to highlight the progress of the Women’s Start-up Microfinance Revolving Fund, which is financed by Taiwan.
The US$1 million fund was established in January last year to provide financial assistance to aspiring female entrepreneurs in Eswatini, foster sustainable growth and empower women to drive change in their communities.
More than 500 women in the African country have been empowered through the fund, the ministry said.
The deputy prime minister’s office in a Facebook post quoted Dladla as saying that through the program, Swazi women who once struggled to make ends meet are now proud business owners.
The fund has become “a beacon of hope and a symbol of progress,” opening doors that had long been closed to many women “due to limited financial access and economic marginalization,” the post quoted Dladla as saying, while expressing her gratitude to Taiwan for funding the program.
At Wednesday’s ceremony, Lin lauded the success of the program and pledged an additional US$500,000 to expand it.
He also praised the borrowers, saying that almost 100 percent of them had been making their payments on time.
Thirty of the more than 500 loans had been paid off early, he wrote on Facebook.
Lin met Nomfundo Mabuza from Eswatini’s Lubombo Region, one of the first recipients of the Taiwan-funded loans, and her baby girl, Taiwan.
Lin presented the child with a gift of a leopard-cat-shaped pillow that featured the critically endangered endemic species in Taiwan, he wrote on Facebook.
In March last year, Mabuza received a loan of 20,000 lilangeni (US$1,069) from the women’s start-up fund, which she used to buy high-quality corn and vegetable seeds, the International Cooperation and Development Fund said.
After harvesting her crops, Mabuza sold them for more than 50,000 lilangeni, and by September last year, she had repaid the loan in full, the fund said.
When Mabuza gave birth last month, she named her child Taiwan in recognition of the “life-changing” support she had received through the Taiwan-funded loan, the agency said.
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