The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday expressed gratitude to the Slovakian parliament for its support of Taiwan’s participation in the upcoming World Health Assembly (WHA) as an observer.
The Slovakian parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and Health Committee each passed a resolution affirming Taiwan’s effort against the COVID-19 pandemic and supporting Taipei’s observer status at the 75th WHA — the decisionmaking body of the WHO — that is to take place from May 22 to 28.
Taiwan attended annual WHA meetings as an observer from 2009 to 2016, when relations between Taipei and Beijing were better under the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government. Since 2017, the WHO has refused to invite Taiwan to the assembly due to opposition from China.
Photo: Reuters
Separately, the government has pledged to donate US$500,000 to Somaliland to help the victims of a massive fire that ripped through the country’s biggest market early this month, the ministry said yesterday.
The fire at the Waheen market, a major trade and financial hub, on April 1 has cost Somaliland about US$2 billion, or 60 percent of the country’s GDP, al-Jazeera reported.
The blaze has affected the livelihoods of thousands of people, and the ministry pledged to offer emergency humanitarian assistance to those affected, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said.
Photo: AFP
The Somaliland government expressed its gratitude for the donation and said it would arrange a public ceremony at which the funds would be officially handed over, Ou said.
The government would also work with other like-minded countries to help Somaliland rebuild the market, she said.
The Somaliland government has said that 1,000 shops, and 4,200 stalls and tables at the market were destroyed in the fire, affecting more than 17,000 people who directly relied on the market for their livelihood.
Twenty-seven people were hospitalized with severe injuries.
Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 after years of conflict. It has offices in about a dozen countries, according to its foreign ministry’s Web site, but does not have formal diplomatic relations with any nation.
Relations between Taiwan and Somaliland have warmed over the years, with Taipei opening a representative office in Somaliland’s capital, Hargeisa, on Aug. 17, 2020, and Somaliland authorities opening a reciprocal office in Taipei on Sept. 9 of the same year.
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
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