Taiwan Today

After the catastrophic Haiti earthquake in January 2010, a rescue team from Taiwan was one of the first to reach the disaster area. Republic of China (ROC) President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) recalled the team’s efforts at the opening of the International Conference on International Development Cooperation and Taiwan Experience, which took place in Taipei on September 25 this year. “The day after our team arrived, I called them up, and the voice from the other end of the telephone line was thrilled. He said, ‘Mr. President, 15 minutes ago, we just got a survivor out of the debris,’” Ma said. “I was also thrilled. This was the first time for a Taiwan rescue team sent abroad to rescue a person alive, because in the past, for diplomatic reasons, we were unable to reach the site in time to do our job.”

Although Taiwan is now a provider of extensive foreign aid, that was not the case just a half-century ago. Between 1950 and 1965, for example, Taiwan received an average of US$100 million in economic aid from the United States each year, an amount then equivalent to roughly 9 percent of Taiwan’s gross domestic product. “By using this aid, we were able to build up our infrastructure—reservoirs, railways and other things. And we were also able to set up our import substitution industries, which gradually transformed into export expansion,” Ma said at the conference, which was organized by the International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF) and attracted more than 200 participants from home and abroad.

Between the 1960s and 1970s, Taiwan also received loans from Japan and Saudi Arabia, as well as financial and technical assistance from international organizations such as the Asian Development Bank, International Development Association, World Bank and World Health Organization. Timothy Chin-tien Yang (楊進添), secretary-general to the president and former minister of foreign affairs, says that such assistance played an important role in building a solid foundation for economic development in Taiwan.

Ma noted that the end of American aid in 1965 signaled Taiwan’s “graduation” from the ranks of countries requiring foreign assistance. In fact, Taiwan had already begun playing the role of an international aid provider by that time, as the country deployed its first agricultural mission to Vietnam in 1959 and sent the first of many teams assisting Africa’s emerging independent states in 1960. Since then, Taiwan has gradually expanded its overseas technical support to friendly developing countries worldwide, Yang says, as well as expanded the types of aid offered to include donations of commodities, grants, loans and provision of disaster relief services.

Huang Kwei-bo (黃奎博), an associate professor in the Department of Diplomacy at National Chengchi University in Taipei, believes that the turn toward viable diplomacy in 2008 has significantly improved Taiwan’s ability to provide international development assistance. Yang defines viable diplomacy as a rational and pragmatic approach toward cultivating Taiwan’s foreign relations. “The fundamental concept is to set aside [the sovereignty] dispute with mainland China and pursue a policy of no independence, no unification and no use of force to maintain the cross-strait status quo under the framework of the Constitution of the Republic of China,” he says. At the ICDF conference, Ma noted that the viable diplomacy strategy has effectively removed some of the obstacles Taiwan previously encountered in international relations, which in turn has allowed the country to provide greater and timelier assistance when disaster strikes overseas.

Before the policy’s implementation, Huang says Taiwan was typically unable to deliver some portion of its aid to recipients through the proper channels, while in other cases the aid failed to reach the intended recipients altogether.

Yang says such problems occurred because Taiwan’s efforts were sometimes negatively viewed as “checkbook diplomacy” instead of attempts to deliver genuine foreign aid. “The fierce diplomatic contest between Taiwan and mainland China often gave people the wrong impression that the government was using economic aid to acquire diplomatic favor,” he explains.

Since the implementation of the viable diplomacy policy, however, Huang says that Taiwan has become known for providing aid in accordance with legitimate goals, in conformance with legal procedures and in an effective manner, which are also mainstream rules followed by the community of donor nations. In 2009 the ROC Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) took the additional step of publishing a white paper on the nation’s foreign aid principles under the viable diplomacy policy. In most cases, the professor explains, those principles require potential recipient countries to submit detailed written proposals for aid to the ROC government, thus greatly reducing the possibility that recipients will make exorbitant financial demands. According to Annmaree O’Keeffe, a research fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy, an independent think tank in Australia, another important benefit of such proposals is that recipient states will not feel imposed upon, as resultant aid projects will be guided primarily by their own development agendas.

The white paper also set out the government’s goal of adjusting Taiwan’s aid model to conform to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. “That shows Taiwan’s aid perspective and aid policies are converging with those of the international community,” Huang says. The Paris Declaration was signed by 116 countries and international organizations in 2005 and provides guidelines for donor and recipient countries designed to improve the distribution and management of aid, while all UN member states agreed to set the eight Millennium Development Goals as benchmarks to be reached by 2015.

Following the release of the white paper, Taiwan’s next major foreign aid development was the June 2010 promulgation of the International Cooperation and Development Act, which formally establishes goals, methods and principles for the government to follow in international assistance projects. Yang says six more regulations were drafted and took effect in 2011 that provide detailed guidelines for evaluating, planning and dispatching personnel for aid programs. Through the establishment of that legal framework, Taiwan’s foreign aid efforts have become more project- and results-oriented. Government spending on aid has therefore decreased, reflecting the more effective use of aid funds, according to Yang. Taiwan’s budget for official development assistance has fallen from 0.12 percent of gross national income in 2009 to a projected 0.08 percent this year, or NT$10.92 billion (US$364 million).

Taiwan’s recently formalized aid policies have already helped boost the nation’s image in the international community, Yang says. “One piece of evidence for that is that some countries who are not allies of Taiwan have begun inviting us to join forces in their aid projects,” he says. According to MOFA, one such joint project was the ROC government’s work with Mercy Corps, a US nongovernmental organization (NGO), to provide rice to drought-stricken areas in East Africa in 2011. Australia and New Zealand are also exploring ways to work with Taiwan to deliver assistance in less-developed states in the Pacific region. Huang cautions, however, that it is difficult to ascertain the exact extent to which Taiwan’s aid projects have expanded the country’s international space or enhanced relations with allies and partner nations, as measuring the level of friendliness and support in a relationship can be an abstract and subjective undertaking.

Through the experience of providing international aid for more than 50 years, Taiwan has gained a deeper understanding of the needs of developing nations and has adjusted its assistance accordingly, Huang says, thereby increasing the diversity of aid programs offered. Ma also emphasized that point at the conference, saying “We now share our successes with dozens of countries via hundreds of projects, including agricultural technical support, vocational training, medical help, and most recently, the high-technology area.”

Yang says that the wide variety of aid offered by Taiwan is a reflection of the nation’s economic growth and experience in setting up successful aid programs. “We carry out these projects by first demonstrating, then testing and finally promoting related know-how in the [recipient] states to ensure the support can really reach the people there,” he explains, adding that the approach is designed to share Taiwan’s experience with developing states so that they may one day learn to stand on their own feet. “Our principle is to teach people how to fish rather than just giving them fish. It’s all about capacity building,” Yang says.

Ma also stressed the importance of matching Taiwan’s strengths with the needs of recipient nations. Pointing to Taiwan’s “A Lamp Lighting up Africa” project, which was launched in 2010 in Burkina Faso, Ma said that the idea for the program began with the discovery that schoolchildren in some rural areas of the country were using streetlights to study by, as many of their homes lacked nighttime illumination. Under the project, several of Taiwan’s powerful high-tech companies took about a year to develop portable LED lamps that shine for four to eight hours and are recharged through solar panels installed in schools. The president called it “a very rewarding experience” when he witnessed young students using the lamps to do their homework during his trip to Burkina Faso in April this year. At the time of Ma's visit, Taiwan had delivered around 7,000 of the lamps to the African nation.

In The Gambia, Fatou Lamin Faye, minister of basic and secondary education, expresses appreciation for the assistance Taiwan has provided since the late 1990s. Education is another core strength for Taiwan, which has a 98.17 percent literacy rate for people aged 15 and older, enjoys virtually universal 12-year education and sees about 90 percent of all senior high school graduates go on to tertiary studies. Faye says that Taiwan’s support programs have helped put more Gambian girls in school and provided more opportunities for the country’s high school graduates to pursue higher education in engineering-related fields in Taiwan.

Vocational education is playing an increasingly vital role in The Gambia’s socioeconomic development. The Gambian government became aware that the country lacked skilled workers after it began a number of development projects in 1994, Faye explains. “As such, we’re focusing a lot on the technical education areas, such as science technology innovation, so that we’ll be able to move the development forward,” she says.

James Louis Fletcher, minister for public service, sustainable development, energy, science and technology in Saint Lucia, a Caribbean island nation, refers to Taiwan’s technical assistance in orchid production as one of the most significant development projects carried out there. Floriculture is another of Taiwan’s strengths, as the country is the world’s largest exporter of orchids. Technical assistance team members transferred the sophisticated orchid cultivation methods developed in Taiwan to growers in Saint Lucia, enabling them to produce a wide variety of the flowers.

In the bigger picture, Fletcher says that Taiwan’s rapid socioeconomic development serves as a great inspiration for Saint Lucia. “We are learning from Taiwan’s experience, the experience of a country that went from being an aid recipient to a donor … We believe that should be our main objective, which is not to always be a country that receives international assistance, but at some point, graduate from that,” he says.

Ralph L. Cwerman is president of the Humpty Dumpty Institute (HDI), a US-based NGO dedicated to development projects and clearing landmines. At the ICDF conference, Cwerman said Taiwan has proven to be a valuable member of the international donor community and sets a good example for other contributors to follow. Two years ago, MOFA provided a considerable grant for the NGO’s projects, Cwerman said. The grant’s significance was greater than just the money HDI received, however, Cwerman noted, as Taiwan’s participation inspired other countries—including the United States, Japan and Australia—to follow suit by contributing to HDI projects. “[It proved that] you don’t need to enter the UN system in order to join the coalition of countries that will fund a project in a kindly and unified way,” he said.

Looking ahead, Huang points out that government spending on aid has fallen worldwide as a result of the tepid global economy. He suggests that to help make the country’s aid budget go further, MOFA should seek more opportunities to work with Taiwan’s diverse and vibrant NGOs, which capitalize on the power of extensive volunteer networks to deliver low-cost assistance.

Similarly, Cwerman noted at the ICDF conference that public-private partnerships are becoming increasingly important as aid budgets decline. Private religious groups are making a huge contribution toward filling the gap by funding development and humanitarian projects around the world, he said, which makes such groups excellent partners for governments to work with in developing states. “It’s a new source of partners and funding that many people have taken into account,” Cwerman said. In Taiwan, such potential partners include the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation and Fo Guang Shan, Taiwan’s largest Buddhist organizations. Cwerman noted that both groups have done outstanding community and humanitarian work and set up offices all over the world.

O’Keeffe, meanwhile, believes that economic downturns can have the benefit of forcing governments and NGOs to come up with creative, less expensive ways of delivering aid. “I think tightening the budget can sometimes be quite productive and very positive in helping [donors] focus on quality and how to get the best for their money,” she says.

Despite concerns over the sluggish global economy, Huang says the people of Taiwan should remember the foreign aid the country received in the past and put themselves in the shoes of people in less-developed nations. “It’s now Taiwan’s time to repay the international community by giving away a small portion of what we have,” he says. President Ma spoke of Taiwan’s determination to continue doing just that at the end of the ICDF conference. “International development aid is vitally important to any country. I want to assure you we will continue to help our friends because their situation might be worse than ours … The Republic of China will continue to be a development partner,” he said.

Creating Connections: A Conversation with Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin

While many have emphasized the importance of development aid for recipient nations, ROC Minister of Foreign Affairs David Yung-lo Lin (林永樂), who assumed his post on September 27 this year, points out that donors of such aid also benefit substantially. “Boosting the economic development of allied countries and enhancing their competitiveness is the fundamental goal of Taiwan’s aid policy,” Lin says. “But in addition to that, we want to create a connection through our aid projects. We don’t want aid to just be about investing funds, but also be about creating connections between the industries, technologies and talents [in both countries].”

Lin points to the assistance Taiwanese scientists gave to counterparts in the Philippines during a joint typhoon forecasting research project as an example of how such connections can benefit both sides. “We understand that the research we did there helps the Philippines,” Lin says. “But there’s a good chance it will also help us, since the data collected by the project will be used in the effort to improve Taiwan’s management of typhoon disasters.”

According to the minister, while a major portion of Taiwan’s international aid is devoted to providing partner nations with technical support in agriculture, fisheries, health care and renewable energy, rendering such assistance can also help at home. By delivering on-site and remote medical services in less-developed states, for example, Taiwan has gained more cooperative health care-related business opportunities with South Pacific countries, he says.

The minister emphasizes the fact that Taiwan’s aid projects are not necessarily limited to diplomatic allies, particularly when it comes to providing humanitarian assistance. Lin was serving as Taipei’s representative to Indonesia when the Southeast Asian nation was hit by the deadly 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. In the disaster’s aftermath, he gained a firsthand view of the role Taiwan played in relief and rebuilding efforts. “Although we don’t have official diplomatic relations with the country, I saw quite a few [Taiwanese] government agencies and NGOs such as Tzu Chi and World Vision [Taiwan] providing a lot of help there,” he says. “Taiwan has a place in these relief works and will continue to provide assistance to any country struck by a disaster.”

As for the domestic benefits for Taiwan of overseas health projects, Lin notes that they have helped the nation “in its drive to gain greater participation in the World Health Organization and World Health Assembly. We hope the international community will become more aware of the [high] level of Taiwan’s medical care and recognize that Taiwan is an important contributor of medical services.”

MOFA’s white paper on foreign aid and promulgation of the International Cooperation and Development Act helped bring Taiwan’s foreign aid practices in line with international norms, Lin says. To further Taiwan’s drive for more consistent aid policies, he says that it is important to continue adhering to the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, which target eradicating poverty and hunger, providing accessible medical services and achieving universal education, among other objectives. “We’re concentrating on running our aid programs in accordance with these goals,” the minister says. “That will help Taiwan continue to be a responsible stakeholder and a humanitarian aid provider [in the global community].”
—Audrey Wang

Write to Audrey Wang at ycwang06@mofa.gov.tw