Taiwan’s last South American ally would consider Chinese investment to develop its nascent green hydrogen industry as it seeks to become a regional fertilizer supplier, Paraguayan Minister of Finance Carlos Fernandez said.
Paraguay has ample supplies of the two key ingredients needed to produce green hydrogen — water and renewable power from two massive hydroelectric dams — that can be further processed into synthetic fuels and fertilizers.
“I’m open to talking to any entrepreneur from China who wants to invest and create jobs in Paraguay,” Fernandez said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “It’s not a question of China versus Taiwan. We are open to everyone.”
Photo: AFP
China has steadily picked off Taipei’s diplomatic allies in Latin America, with Honduras switching ties this year. Beijing is now a top trading partner of many countries in the region and a major investor in mining, agriculture and infrastructure.
Paraguayan President Santiago Pena, who started his five-year term last month, has said he would maintain the alliance with Taiwan that dates to 1957.
The Pena administration wants to diversify Paraguay’s US$43 billion economy that is heavily dependent on soy and meat exports by developing green hydrogen and expanding a manufacture-for-export industry that shipped goods worth more than US$1 billion last year.
Fernandez said that Chinese investment is displacing the US and Europe in Latin America.
“The US could play a bigger role on economic investment in the whole region and not only Paraguay,” he said. “Otherwise someone else will take its place.”
Fernandez said he expects the Central Bank of Paraguay to continue lowering borrowing costs after last month’s 0.25-point cut to its benchmark interest rate.
“We are in a different cycle from the US and Europe, because we already have inflation converging around 3 percent,” he said.
The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday expressed “grave concerns” after Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) reiterated the city-state’s opposition to “Taiwanese independence” during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強). In Singapore on Saturday, Wong and Li discussed cross-strait developments, the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “Prime Minister Wong reiterated that Singapore has a clear and consistent ‘one China’ policy and is opposed to Taiwan independence,” it said. MOFA responded that it is an objective fact and a common understanding shared by many that the Republic of China (ROC) is an independent, sovereign nation, with world-leading
Temperatures in northern Taiwan are forecast to reach as high as 30°C today, as an ongoing northeasterly seasonal wind system weakens, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said yesterday that with the seasonal wind system weakening, warmer easterly winds would boost the temperature today. Daytime temperatures in northern Taiwan and Yilan County are expected to range from 28°C to 30°C today, up about 3°C from yesterday, Tseng said. According to the CWA, temperature highs in central and southern Taiwan could stay stable. However, the weather is expected to turn cooler starting tonight as the northeasterly wind system strengthens again
The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) has been investigating nine shell companies working with Prince Holding Group, and the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office is seeking further prosecution of alleged criminals, a source said yesterday. The nine companies and three Taiwanese nationals were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Oct. 14 as Specially Designated Nationals as a result of a US federal court indictment. Prince Holding founder Chen Zhi (陳志) has been charged with fraud, conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding’s suspected forced-labor camps in Cambodia, the indictment says. Intelligence shared between Taiwan,
RSS