The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday confirmed it has decided to provide up to US$13 million in aid to help Taiwan's South Pacific ally Nauru re-establish its external air links, as well as helping to write off debts it owed to foreign laborers.
Ministry Spokesperson Michel Lu (
Nauru's President Ludwig Scotty is currently in Taiwan on a six-day state visit.
Nauru is the world's smallest republic. It has an area of 21km2 and a population of about 13,000. It was one of the world's top three exporters of phosphates until it exhausted its reserves.
It currently relies on international support to keep its economy running. Foreign aid comes mainly from Australia, its former occupier.
Lu was responding to a report by the Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday that said President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had promised an aid package of up to NT$500 million (US$12 million) to help Nauru recover its only airplane, owned by the country's state airline Air Nauru, and write off the outstanding labor wage debt the government owed to more than 200 laborers from the neighboring states of Kiribati and Tuvalu.
The report cited the Nauruan local press as saying that Taiwan's foreign ministry had appropriated up to US$3.5 million to pay off Nauru's outstanding labor wage debt and fees to send the foreign laborers home.
Half of the payment had already been given to the Kirabati and Tuvaluan governments in February, Nauru's press said.
The airline's only plane, a Boeing 737-400 commercial jetliner was repossessed in December last year in Australia by the US' EXIM Bank after years of failing to meet debt payments.
More than 200 employees from Kiribati and Tuvalu were marooned in Nauru, whose state-owned phosphate plants were unable to pay their wages and fees to send the laid-off foreign employees home.
"Since the labor case involved three of Taiwan's diplomatic allies, we think our assistance could help solve a thorny problem facing these three countries," Lu said yesterday, adding the amount of the aid package was well within the "affordable" limits of the government.
Taiwan and Nauru resumed diplomatic ties in May last year. The island country had switched diplomatic recognition to China in July 2004 after Beijing offered an alleged NT$130 million in aid.
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