Taiwan is supporting the efforts of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) to prepare for the possible arrival of the deadly Ebola virus.
On Tuesday, Taiwan’s ambassador to SVG, Baushusan Ger presented a cheque of US$100,000 to Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves with the aim of enhancing SVG’s capacity to fight the virus, the latest outbreak of which has claimed more than 6,000 lives, mostly in West Africa.
In response to SVG’s urgent need to preventing the possible threat of Ebola as the tourist season has begun, the Taiwan government provided the fund to SVG for procuring personal protective equipment (PPE) kits and a medical waste incinerator through the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) procurement facility.
Earlier this month, Taiwan gave the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) a cash donation to help meet the most urgent, on-the-ground needs in West Africa.
As part of the efforts to join the international response to combat the disease, Taiwan also donated medical protective gear last November to help fight the Ebola virus in West Africa through a cooperative programme with the United States and other organisations.
Very good. Now, we could shave off a little bit of this change to get a couple of solid fit-for-purpose washing machines to do the hospital laundry and so reduce the risk of infection to those who are now doing it by hand. I would say this expenditure could fall under protective equipment. Am sure there will be no national fuss with that.
J. James. We need to get these people out of Rabacca and our fishing grounds, they are taking much more than they are giving. They give us money and we support them at the UN and elsewhere to try and get the World recognition as a separate State to China.
They have the worlds largest distant water private fishing fleet , much of which flies the Flag of SVG as a flag of convenience, which allows them to plunder the seas without it falling back on ROC. They are fishing in our Atlantic Economic Sea Zone which is just under 3000 square miles.
A few weeks ago we were ensured by the ROC ambassador that their fleet observed the international rules and requirements regarding the catching of fish and in particular the fishing of blue tuna.
But seeing as these vessels carry Vincentian flags and are classed as Vincentian owned, and we have no way of policing what they catch, what they freeze in their factory ships, the tonnages or species, where it is shipped to, where it is landed at. Except we know we get no benefit from it at all and they are free to plunder and do as they will without any supervision whatsoever. We have no fisheries control vessels and our coast guard have never been to the area. So regardless of what the ambassador says, these ships do not pay any ROC tax, they are Vincentian, they pay do not pay any SVG tax either.
Most of what the Green Party say I do not agree with, but most of what they have voiced on this matter I agree with.