Houston Community News >> Taiwan Donates Half a Million Dollars to Dominican Republic

12/15/2007 Taipei - Taiwan has donated 500,000 dollars to the Dominican Republic as relief aid and to help modernize foreign ministry equipment, the Central News Agency said Saturday. The donation was made by Foreign Minister James Huang who is visiting Taiwan's Latin American allies to consolidate ties, CNA said.

Huang arrived in the Dominican Republic from Panama, the first stop of his trip. He inspected areas hit by tropical storm Olga and announced a 300,000-dollar donation for reconstruction. Olga has killed 22 people and force evacuation of 35,000 people.

Last month Taiwan donated 225,000 US dollar to the Dominican Republic after tropical storm Noel killed at least 89 people, left 42 missing and caused millions of dollars in damages.

Later on Friday, Huang met with the Dominican Republic's Vice President Rafael Albuquerque and visited the foreign ministry, where he, on behalf of the Taiwan government, donated 200,000 US dollars to help modernize foreign ministry's equipment.

The Dominican Republic and Panama are among Taiwan's 24 diplomatic allies - half of them in Latin America.

China, which sees Taiwan as its breakaway province, is urging Taiwan's allies to drop Taipei and recognize Beijing.

Taiwan stepped up efforts to safeguard ties with Latin American allies after Costa Rica dumped Taipei to recognize Beijing in June, to benefit from China's surging economic and political power.  

(Contributed by Earthtimes.org)