Chinese Taipei Supports Regional Integration, Human Security Funding

Chinese Taipei has agreed to voluntarily contribute USD 500,000 in additional funding for APEC members‘ collaborative efforts to boost regional economic integration and protection against borderless threats to their people’s lives and livelihoods. 

A Memorandum of Understanding on the donation was signed on Thursday in Lima by officials from Chinese Taipei’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the APEC Secretariat in Singapore, which administers member projects that turn the sustainable growth priorities of the region’s Leaders and Ministers into action. 

The move will fund projects through the remainder of 2016, including those advanced by APEC Senior Officials meeting here this weekend to open up new economic opportunities and improve standards of living across the region. It will also fund research conducted by the APEC Policy Support Unit to bolster policy development in support of these goals. 

“Since joining APEC as a full member in 1991, Chinese Taipei has made every effort to be a constructive partner of and effective contributor to the APEC family,” said Ambassador Pei-yung Hsu, APEC Senior Official for Chinese Taipei. “We cherish every opportunity to work with the APEC Secretariat and other member economies.” 

“It is our firm belief that, through meaningful contributions, significant progress can be made in efforts to realize common goals and visions,” Ambassador Hsu explained. 

APEC member economies fund around 100 projects annually to bridge their knowledge and resource gaps, and better position them to adopt new policy solutions. In 2015, they contributed more than USD 9 million for projects such as technical workshops, training sessions and research. Over 2,000 have been undertaken since APEC initiated project work and founded a Secretariat in 1993. Up to 150 projects may be under implementation at any given time. 

Through APEC projects, Chinese Taipei is mobilizing public-private collaboration to enhance the digital competencies of small and medium enterprises that employ over half of the labor force in APEC economies, promoting their development and participation in cross-border business and trade. Enhancing natural disaster resilience within the sector as risks grow due to climate change is a parallel focus. 

Chinese Taipei is further creating impetus in APEC to reduce food losses and waste across industry supply chains, helping to keep up with demand as income and consumption levels rise. It is also cultivating regional initiatives for strengthening energy security strained by these phenomena, with attention to clean, renewable energy development and improvements in efficiency standards vital to green growth. 

“The rise in scrutiny of trade and globalization is encouraging governments and the private sector to break new ground to ensure that policy regimes more closely align with changing public needs and expectations,” noted Dr Alan Bollard, Executive Director of the APEC Secretariat.    

“Chinese Taipei’s latest donation to the APEC Support Fund, Human Security Sub Fund and the Policy Support Unit is welcome news,” he concluded. “The increased availability of funds for capacity building initiatives in APEC will enable Chinese Taipei and other member economies to take policy innovation another step forward.” 

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 For additional information, or to arrange possible media interviews, please contact:

David Hendrickson +65 9137 3886 at [email protected]

Michael Chapnick (in Lima) +65 9647 4847 at [email protected]