our partner countries, our Vocational Training Project
in the Marshall Islands saw 151 students complete
training courses. Having gained basic professional skills
in plumbing and electrical servicing and installation or
automobile maintenance, these graduates are now well
placed to enter the local job market or those in nearby U.S.
territories. The project has also inspired the Marshallese
government to build on the successes of the project and
implement a second-stage teacher training program,
as part of which five outstanding trainees have been
dispatched to Taiwan to take part in vocational training
courses.
To further meet our partners’ development needs,
we also sent more than 10 Taiwanese scholars and
experts to partner countries to conduct technical training
workshops and business counseling work in subjects such
as pork processing, soil analysis, artificial insemination
in livestock, the use of GIS and ICT development. These
efforts enhanced the project implementation capacity of
technical personnel in our partner countries.
Following a period of operational transformation
and strategic planning, 2012 saw us working to enhance
and deepen the implementation of the project cycle. In
terms of lending and investment projects, this meant
strengthening colleagues’ capacity to utilize financial
instruments and standardizing certain practices, as well
as expanding substantive cooperation with international
organizations.
In terms of strengthening colleagues’ capacity to
utilize financial instruments and standardizing practices,
we drew on the practices of international organizations
and our own past experiences to draft Guidelines for the
Financial Analysis of Commercial Banks. This tool will help
implement knowledge management and standardized
processes associated with operations and implementation
and guide colleagues in implementing feasibility studies
or performing appraisals. We have also set out a series
of indicators for investments and, through the operation
of public-private partnerships, intend to better integrate
resources in the future. We hope to establish sound
rules and regulations and achieve better performance in
accordance with regulatory norms, the practical needs of
partner countries and the requirements of post-investment
In terms of project preparatory work, in the past
year we prepared several new projects designed to
meet partners’ needs in agricultural development. For
example, we planned the Bamboo Industries Development
Project in Guatemala to build the planning capacity of the
Guatemalan government to promote the bamboo industry.
We plan to expand this project to Ecuador, Nicaragua,
Honduras and other Latin American and Caribbean
partners in the future. We hope to foster the further
development of bamboo resources and bamboo products
and marketing and conduct other supplementary activities
which revolve around the project – such as localized
training or loans to entrepreneurs – to consolidate the
resources of the bamboo industry throughout the region.
Elsewhere, in Paraguay, Haiti, St. Kitts and Nevis, and
St. Vincent and the Grenadines, we have a number of
projects under joint development involving a range of
activities such as the construction of feed mills, vegetable
production and marketing, aquaculture, agriculture and
the upgrading of crop- and livestock-based products.
management.
In terms of assessing sustainability and social
responsibility, our lending and investment projects
also incorporate non-financial concerns including
environmental, social and corporate governance targets.
We have also conducted customized research into
private sector investments to ensure that our assistance
converges with trends and practices at international
organizations.
Finally, in terms of engaging in substantive
cooperation with international organizations, we have
continued to normalize communications, actively
participating in the yearly working meetings, official
annual meetings and other activities of international
organizations. We keep a close eye on development
trends so that we can better explore possible
opportunities for cooperation.
As of December 31, 2012, the TaiwanICDF was
committed to 83 lending projects, for which commitments
amounted to approximately US$650 million. We were
also committed to 13 investment projects, for which
commitments amounted to approximately US$100 million.
Since lending and investment projects require
Lending and Investment
23
