Costa Rica: Taiwan will give $340 million

News | Africa - Reuters.com: "Taiwan, recognised by only 24 governments around the world, will give $340 million this year to third-world countries, playing up new types of assistance that it hopes China cannot match, an aid agency head said on Wednesday.

China, which has viewed self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, seeks to isolate Taiwan internationally and has amassed 170 diplomatic partners compared to Taiwan's two-dozen mainly small, poor countries in Central America, the South Pacific and Africa.

Both sides often accuse each other of dollar diplomacy, or offers of aid or cheap loans to curry influence with would-be diplomatic allies.

The new development aid will include $2 million for Caribbean ally St. Lucia, which defected from China in May, and extended aid for Costa Rica which switched its allegiance from Taiwan to China in June, the Foreign Ministry's International Cooperation and Development Fund said.

The fund decided that from the second half of this year through 2008 it would offer aid it believes China lacks experience to provide, Chen Cheng-chung, the fund's secretary-general, said, naming agricultural and Internet expertise and hospital resources as three potential areas.

'These are unique items that can be supplied by the Taiwan government and civil society,' said Chen.

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Labels: central america, costa rica, politics, taiwan costa rica