An attempt to combine technology with foreign aid to help people cope with natural disasters passed its first test last month when it gave people in Belize enough time to respond to flooding caused by Hurricane Iota, an International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF) official said on Thursday.
The disaster prevention plan gave San Ignacio residents three extra hours to evacuate before flood waters hit the town, ICDF Deputy Secretary-General Chen Ai-chen (陳愛貞) said.
The ICDF, affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is tasked with aiding developing partner countries.
The project was launched last year in Belize — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and is expected to be completed in 2022.
It focuses on using technology to save lives by improving early warning systems, updating maps, controlling flooding and raising disaster awareness.
The system relies on stations that monitor water and weather conditions, and feed real-time data into a flood warning platform.
Presented through graphics, the information provides the Belizean Department of the Environment a clear picture of what is happening around the country, Chen said.
When Iota hit the country, the water level of nearby rivers rose above the warning level, automatically issuing a three-hour evacuation order for the residents of San Ignacio.
As a result, the town experienced limited damage, compared with other places affected by the hurricane, Chen said.
The heads of three major US banks on Wednesday pledged that they would withdraw from the Chinese market if Washington imposed sanctions on Beijing in response to an invasion of Taiwan. JP Morgan Chase chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon, Bank of America chairman and CEO Brian Moynihan and Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser told lawmakers at a hearing of the US House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services in Washington that the three banks would follow the guidance of the US government to exit China if necessary. The three bankers made the pledge after US Representative Blaine Luetkemeyer asked the three if they
CHINA CRITIC: Prime ministerial candidate Giorgia Meloni, the front-runner in today’s election, said that she would not renew a Belt and Road Initiative deal with Beijing Italian lawmaker Giorgia Meloni, the front-runner to become the country’s next prime minister, is expected to reverse course on Italy’s support for China’s Belt and Road Initiative and strengthen ties with Taiwan if a coalition headed by her party wins the country’s general election today. “Without any doubt, if there is a center-right government, it is sure that Taiwan will be an essential concern for Italy,” Meloni told the Central News Agency in an interview. Italians are to vote in a snap election triggered by the resignation of Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi following a failed attempt to get his coalition partners
HELPING Hand: The government is to provide NT$30,000 in disaster relief to displaced people, while those who have been severely injured would receive NT$250,000 Contingency bus services are transporting rail passengers between Hualien and Taitung counties on the nation’s east coast after a magnitude 6.8 earthquake damaged facilities on Sunday, the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) said yesterday. Until normal train services resume, the bus services would be provided every hour from 6am to 8pm between Hualien and Taitung railway stations, with stops in Jian (吉安), Shoufong (壽豐), Fonglin (鳳林), Guangfu (光復), Ruisuei (瑞穗), Yuli (玉里), Fuli (富里), Chihshang (池上), Guanshan (關山) and Luye (鹿野), the TRA said. While most of the damaged railway tracks would be repaired by today and others by Sunday, Minister of Transportation
HIGH STAKES: An attack on Taiwan could prompt a joint response from the US and Japan, and trigger a global conflict that could bring down the CCP, Liu Tai-ying said The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) would not be able to launch an invasion of Taiwan for at least another 10 years, Taiwan Research Institute founder Liu Tai-ying (劉泰英) said on Friday. To occupy Taiwan, China needs to transport at least 300,000 to 400,000 troops across the Taiwan Strait during battle, but it would lack the ability to do so for at least another decade, said Liu, a former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) treasurer and a close aide to former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝). The challenges that China would face during an attempted invasion of Taiwan would be even greater than those
RSS