President Ma promises to help with Honduras development

Ma, who arrived in Tegucigalpa earlier in the day to attend Honduras' presidential inauguration, was quoted as having made the promise during a meeting with new Honduran President Porfirio Lobo Sosa.

In their talks, Presidential Office spokesman Wang Yu-chi said, Lobo expressed hopes that Taiwan could provide low-end computers for use by Honduran school children.

Responding to Lobo's request, Ma said Taiwan has assisted some member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum with digitization under an APEC Digital Opportunity Center (ADOC) program which offers not only hardware equipment but also educational training.

Although Honduras is not an APEC member, Ma said Taiwan can offer similar assistance.

Lobo also mentioned Taiwan's "one town, one product" agricultural aid program for its diplomatic allies, saying Honduras wants to learn from Taiwan's experience in agricultural development and looks forward to attracting investment from Taiwan.

In response, Ma said Honduras is welcome to send personnel to Taiwan and present a concrete development project for assessment.

Perhaps, he added, Taiwan can send experts to Honduras to conduct a feasibility study on development projects proposed by the Central American country.

Ma also suggested that Honduras create a favorable investment climate, including tax incentives, quality labor and convenient infrastructure, to attract Taiwanese investors.

On his arrival in the Honduran capital, Ma issued a statement recognizing Honduras' efforts to elect a new president by peaceful means following months of political turmoil after its former president was ousted in a military-backed coup.

Ma also promised in his statement that Taiwan will assist with Honduras' development in the hope of forming strategic partnerships.

He is one of the three foreign heads of state to have attended Lobo's inauguration.

Ma and his entourage arrived in Honduras early Wednesday after a one-day layover in San Francisco.

Following his Honduras visit, Ma will travel to the Dominican Republic for a brief visit to express his concern for neighboring Haiti after the Caribbean ally was struck by a deadly magnitude-7 earthquake Jan. 12.

Ma's chartered flight is carrying 10 tons of disaster relief supplies that will be unloaded in the Dominican Republic for delivery by road to the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.

During his stay in the Dominican Republic capital of Santo Domingo, Ma will meet with Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive on post-disaster relief efforts.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos Respond to this email