Taiwan Wants to Donate US$1 Million to WHO|我擬捐百萬美金給WHO 怎麼捐學問大

President Tsai Ing-wen recently announced that Taiwan will donate US$1 million to the World Health Organization to help the fight against Ebola. Taiwan is not a WHO member or observer and has not been invited to the World Health Assembly in several years. Thus, it does not know how to make the donation. Health Minister Chen Shih-chung says he does not know either but will work with the foreign ministry to find a way so that Taiwan can express its goodwill.


Taiwan did not receive an invitation to the World Health Assembly again this year. Despite this, President Tsai Ing-wen has announced a US$1 million donation to the World Health Organization to fight Ebola. As Taiwan is not a member of the WHO or even an observer, the government doesn't know how to make the donation. Health and Welfare Minister Chen Shih-chung says he'll find a way.

Right now, I don't know. Of course, we will do everything we can and use every channel available to donate the money. If they really won't accept it or we really can't make the donation, then there's nothing we can do. We already did everything we can to show our goodwill.

Taiwan previously announced it would donate US$1 million to the WHO for the same purpose in 2014, but in the end it had to donate the sum to the CDC Foundation in the U.S. and ask the foundation to direct the sum to the WHO. Lawmakers say it would be yet another diplomatic setback if Taiwan can't even manage to make this donation.

President Tsai decided to go ahead with this announcement, but wouldn't it be yet another diplomatic defeat if the donation can't be made? We are trying to find an appropriate and suitable way. We haven't found one yet. We are contacting people. We are in the middle of contacting people. But it's been many days already, right? These things take time.

We would be engaging in international diplomatic relations if we can donate the BCG vaccines that we have an excess supply of. Isn't that right? It's even easier to donate money than it is to donate vaccines. When you donate vaccines, you have to get WHO certification and meet various regulations, so it's really difficult. When you donate money, you can make detours around certain channels so we can achieve our goal of helping.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it is still trying to figure things out. Meanwhile, Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers are calling on the foreign and health ministries to start planning the campaign for participation in next year's WHA so Taiwan can show its medical value to the world.