The Taiwan government has pledged a grant valued at US $4 million to support the EBRD projects located within its region.

The idea is to improve cooperation and the technical use of resources to improve the green economy and to boost private sector development.

Taiwan reaffirms its commitment to support the EBRD projects with this recent grant of US$ 4 million. The money will aid the cooperative activities that support economies across three continents. The derived resources will help to implement the bank’s investments properly, upgrade standards and technical abilities in the corporate sector while enhancing the functions of the agencies through policy reforms and funded research.

 The agreements for this grant were signed at the 2018 EBRD annual meeting held in Jordan. The event was attended by the Taiwanese representative David Lin and Pierre Heilbronn who is the EBRD’s Vice President, in charge of Policy and Partnerships.

The cooperation between Taiwan and the EBRD started as far back as 1991. It is aimed at propagating the global green agenda and fostering an entrepreneurial focus on economies in transition. This has become one of the primary objectives of the Taiwanese government hence its involvement as a donor in support of EBRD’s activities.

The Taiwanese grants are made available to the EBRD Technical Cooperation Fund under the Taiwanese business funding provisions. The focus is to develop a sustainable resource management system, intelligent transportation systems, better infrastructure for information technology, and the optimal use of innovation to improve the economy, and the corporate sector. This will be done by introducing advisory programs for small and medium-sized enterprises and the Women in Business programmes.

Since its inception, over €36.5 million has been made available to promote the technical cooperation between Taiwan and the EBRD. The multi-donor funding targets the EBRD Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Multi-Donor Account, the Early Transition Countries Fund, the Small Business Impact Fund, and the Eastern Europe Energy Efficiency and Environment Partnership (ESP) Fund.

Some significant projects under the EBRD/Taiwanese cooperation include the economic inclusion of the Syrian refugees in Jordan, the involvement of young people in the Croatian labour market, and providing support to the city of Amman in its struggle with rapid urban growth.