TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan should provide official development assistance (ODA) to Ukraine once it begins its post-war recovery, Taiwan NextGen Foundation CEO Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) said on Tuesday (April 27).
In an opinion piece published in Commonwealth Magazine, Chen said that “facilitating the reconstruction efforts of Ukrainian healthcare and educational facilities is a task to which the nation can, and indeed should contribute on a large scale.”
He pointed out that Taiwan has already donated a total of 650 tons of humanitarian aid and raised more than NT$930 million (US$31.62 million) in financial relief. This shows that “Taiwan is a reliable partner in the international community, capable of responding to a global crisis,” he said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the International Cooperation and Development Fund, and the Taiwan Alliance in International Development could be “nodal institutions” in formulating Taiwan’s long-term strategic relief efforts in Ukraine, he said.
Detailing the specifics of what Taiwan can do, Chen said construction and maintenance of social service facilities such as hospitals and schools will be “pressing issues” in Ukraine’s post-war recovery. Taiwan “has developed a strong capacity for developing social infrastructure in recipient countries,” he said.
Chen said that helping Ukraine this way would allow European partners to “fully appreciate the potential of Taiwan’s transparent and people-centric social infrastructure and capacity building programs.”