SUVA (Oceania Flash) — 17 projects implemented by the Noumea-based Secretariat of the Pacific Community, the Pacific’s inter-governmental technical organization, ranging from agriculture, public health, fisheries, to education and culture have last week benefited from a $330,000 grant from Taiwan.
The check was handed over last week by Taiwan’s trade office representative Liu Fu-Tien to Pacific Islands Forum’s Secretary-General Noel Levi and SPC Director-General Lourdes Pangelinan, who was in Fiji.
The grant is part of a $845,000 package for 35 projects.
It comes as a result of last year’s post-Forum dialog in Nauru between Pacific Island Forum Countries and Taiwan.
The 17 projects, five of which will be implemented in Noumea, New Caledonia, SPC’s headquarters, the rest in Suva, Fiji cover such diverse areas as fisheries, public health, culture and intellectual property preservation in the Pacific, population, women and youth, renewable energies, media, agriculture, maritime and administration. This brings to 58 the total number of projects funded by Taiwan, and implemented by SPC over the past six years, for a total amount of $1.79 million, the Forum said in a release.
