Taipei, June 27 (CNA) The Taiwanese government aims to work more closely with the private sector to convince companies to put money into government-funded overseas assistance programs in the wake of a continuous reduction of budget for this purpose, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Thursday.
Phoebe Yeh, director-general of MOFA's Department of International Cooperation and Economic Affairs, said Taiwan is spending less and less in official development assistance (ODA), which is defined as government aid designed to promote the economic development and welfare of developing countries.
A long-standing United Nations target is that developed countries should devote 0.7 percent of their gross national income (GNI) to ODA, according to Yeh.
Taiwan, however, spent US$300 million on ODA in 2018, which is only around 0.051 percent of its GNI, compared with 0.28 percent for Japan and 0.15 percent for South Korea, Yeh noted.
Taiwan spent 0.056 percent of its GNI on ODA in 2017.
She attributed to the significant drop in ODA budget to a US$6.24 million decrease in government budget allocated to foreign aid.
Yeh said the TaiwanICDF, a MOFA-funded agency that runs the country's foreign aid programs, has visited a number of local enterprises to persuade them to join ICDF-initiated foreign aid projects.
Through technical cooperation, the government is hoping that the private sector can see the business potential in these foreign aid projects, mostly in Taiwan's diplomatic allies in Latin America and Africa, Yeh added.
Shyy Lih-jiun, deputy head of TaiwanICDF, said the agency is also working hand-in-hand with international non-governmental organizations to launch joint projects in order to save government funds.
