By Giff Johnson
For Variety

MAJURO — The Taiwan government is funding the purchase of a plane for the Marshall Islands’ domestic airline.
On Wednesday, Taiwan Ambassador to the Marshall Islands Lien-Gene Chen delivered a $2 million check to the government that is to be used by Air Marshall Islands to buy a Dash-8 aircraft from a United States-based leasing firm.
This is Taiwan’s second aircraft purchase for its Pacific allies. Last year, Taiwan funded the purchase of a Boeing-737 for the tiny republic of Nauru so it could resume jet service to remote islands in the central Pacific after an Air Nauru-leased Boeing-737 was repossessed in December 2005 for lack of payments.
The Marshall Islands established diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1998, and Nauru was the most recent island nation to change from recognizing China to Taiwan in 2005.
Ambasador Chen presented the $2 million check to Marshall Islands Foreign Minister Gerald Zackios, Finance Minister Brenson Wase and Air Marshall Islands general manager Dan Fitzpatrick saying he hoped this will help the airline to provide better air service and increase its reliability.
“This is a great day for the people of the Marshall Islands,” Fitzpatrick said. “We’ll now have an aircraft that has proven itself suitable for the Marshall Islands.”
The dash is a twin-engine propeller plane with a seating capacity of 34. Air Marshall Islands also operates a 19-seat Dornier aircraft.