Global partnerships show Taiwan is not alone

By Jack Hsu, Staff Writer, Taiwan News*

When the United Nations announced its Millennium Development Goals in 2000, it focused on the importance of global cooperation and forming bilateral and multilateral partnerships as a means of achieving them.

As a committed player in the field of international development, the TaiwanICDF is dedicated to integrating Taiwan's public and private sector resources into its cooperation with other international organizations, in order to work toward the fulfillment of the MDGs. Through joint efforts and partnerships, the TaiwanICDF assists developing countries, and engages in initiatives to reduce poverty around the world.

The "Taiwan experience" is the TaiwanICDF's major capital in promoting international development cooperation. Taiwan has well-established infrastructures in agriculture, small and medium enterprise (SME) development, information technology, and medicine and health care. This solid base enables the TaiwanICDF to combine funds, technology, and manpower to conduct effective assistance programs.

The TaiwanICDF engages in four categories of international cooperation: Investment/financing, technological cooperation, human resources training, and humanitarian assistance. Operations include enhancement of financial institutions that aim to provide better financing services to budding entrepreneurs, the cultivation of local talent for much-needed infrastructure projects, technology transfer, and disaster relief.

In the past, the development cooperation projects between the TaiwanICDF and international organizations mostly consisted of providing developing countries with financial capital. However, in recent years, they have shifted towards the provision of experts, and technology.

The transformation of Taiwan from recipient country to provider means that the TaiwanICDF is now able to draw on decades of experience and know-how, as well as all of Taiwan's available resources.

Partnership Programs

1. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD): Rejuvenating the Free Market

▲Grand opening of the "Taiwan Office for EBRD Business Development" was held in Taipei, 2006. It evident the friendly cooperation between EBRD and Taiwan.

The rapid development of Central and Eastern European countries, which were once part of the Soviet bloc, has caught the world's attention. The EBRD was established in 1991 to assist these countries transition to free-market economies.

Since 1996, the TaiwanICDF has formed cooperative partnerships with the EBRD to provide financial services to SMEs in the region. Today, the targeted beneficiaries include micro-sized enterprises in order to meet the local demand. Participating financial institutions have thus been able to enlarge the scope of their operations, while receiving advisory expert advice from the EBRD.

In 2005, the TaiwanICDF and the EBRD set up the Financial Intermediary Investment Special Fund-Small Business Account, a cooperative project incorporating a network of banking and non-banking financial institutions. The objective was to help more people in remote areas gain access to a wider range of financing services.

Through that partnership, the TaiwanICDF made its microfinancing program available in the Caucasus region for the first time. Cooperating with the EBRD has also opened up opportunities for the TaiwanICDF in the Middle East.

2. Young Americas Business Trust (YABT): Helping Young Entrepreneurs

▲The South Hope team from Mexico celebrates winning the prize in the "Talent and Innovation Competition of the Americas" held by YABT and the TaiwanICDF in Panama, 2007.

Taiwan's economic miracle hinged, in part, on years of human resources training in local SMEs. This experience was the bedrock of the TaiwanICDF's cooperation with YABT, an initiative to assist with the training of young entrepreneurs in Latin America.

YABT also has a great deal of experience in this field, and the joint efforts of these two organizations led to the expansion of its network of young entrepreneurs, and an increase in the number of workshops organized. Participants from YABT member countries were also invited to attend training courses held by the TaiwanICDF.

In 2004, the Fund invited Roy Thomason, the CEO of YABT to Taiwan to observe how Taiwan applies innovative methods to coach outstanding young entrepreneurs. Continuing the series of exchanges between the two organizations, in 2006, the TaiwanICDF invited other high-ranking personnel from YABT to observe the management models adopted by Taiwan's Global Talentrepreneur Innovation & Collaboration Association (GlobalTiC).

The visitors enthusiastically took what they learned back to Latin America and, in October that year, organized the Talent and Innovation Competition of the Americas (TIC Americas), which saw 790 teams from 34 nations participating.

More recently, in June 2007, YABT held the second TIC Americas event, backed by sponsorship from the TaiwanICDF, which also invited the seven winning teams to participate in the GlobalTiC competition that was held the following month in Taipei. The seven teams performed admirably well, scooping four first prizes in eight events.

3. Cooperating with Food For The Poor (FFP): A Humanitarian Initiative

▲Staff from the technical mission oversee the release of fry by a group of farmers in Guatemala in 2007.

Food For The Poor, established in 1982, is a major U.S,-based Christian relief organization that conducts various humanitarian projects, mostly in Central America and the Caribbean. Today, it is one of the most influential NGOs in the world, with huge capital and resources.

In 2005, the TaiwanICDF began cooperating with FFP on its Aquaculture Project in Honduras. Since then, the two organizations have continued to collaborate on assistance programs in areas such as agricultural production, medical services, microfinancing for farmers, community development, and human resource training.

For these projects, FFP provides the needed capital, while the TaiwanICDF dispatches experts and technicians to assist on site. By the end of 2007, the TaiwanICDF and FFP had conducted more than 10 projects in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

The UN declared October 16, 2007 World Food Day to remind everyone that 854 million people around the world still lack basic nutrition, and that the problem of food shortages should not be underestimated. According to UN reports, countries with food deficits will increasingly have to import billions of dollars worth of grains in the future to avert famine.

Given this potentially catastrophic scenario, the TaiwanICDF and FFP worked together to carry out much-needed food assistance programs in 2007. The FFP took charge of food delivery, while the TaiwanICDF was responsible for managing the supply.

Future plans

▲Farmers learn how to measure the growth rate of fry, as part of a cooperation project between FFP and the TaiwanICDF, in the Dominican Republic in 2007.

Taiwan has connected itself with the world by sharing the "Taiwan experience" in economic development as it contributes to the development drive of the international community. The TaiwanICDF has been a successful vehicle for cooperation with various international organizations engaged in similar efforts. In this way, the Fund has also helped create a larger international role for Taiwan.

In the future, the TaiwanICDF plans to reinforce all its existing cooperative partnerships, and to continue developing harmonious relationships with various international organizations, bilateral assistance institutions, and NGOs. Maximizing the use of Taiwan's resources is the key to realizing this plan.

We now form part of a global village and there is a higher level of interdependence among nations. Issues have to be handled in a collective manner, and multilateral harmonization has become increasingly important for a nation. As a member of this world community, Taiwan believes in constructing solid, effective relationships with like-minded partners. By doing so, we can stand together, facing the challenges posed by globalization with renewed confidence.

* This article is a collaborative work between Taiwan News and the TaiwanICDF.

• Update: 2022/05/16
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