Taiwan donates 4 million euros to EBRD-led initiative for Ukraine

Taipei, Dec. 14 (CNA) Taiwan has donated 4 million euros (US$4.2 million) to an initiative led by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to support Ukraine's private insurance market, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Saturday.

The donation, made by the TaiwanBusiness-EBRD Technical Cooperation Fund to the Ukraine Recovery and Reconstruction Guarantee Facility (URGF), will be to revitalize the war risk insurance market in Ukraine and help generate the international community's willingness to invest in the country, MOFA said in a news release.

The URGF, a 110 million euro guarantee scheme to provide reinsurance capacity to cover war-related risks in Ukraine, was officially launched by the EBRD during a ceremony held in London on Thursday, MOFA said.

The event was also attended by Taiwan's representative to the U.K. Vincent Yao (姚金祥).

Taiwan firmly supports Ukraine and looks forward to using this mechanism to work with democratic allies to assist Ukraine in its reconstruction, Yao was quoted as saying in the release.

Risks arising from the war have disrupted Ukraine's insurance market, affecting commercial activities and dampening business investment interest, MOFA said.

As such, the restoration of Ukraine's insurance market operations will be pivotal to generating private investment and reconstructing the country, Taiwan's foreign ministry said, noting that France, the United Kingdom, Norway, Switzerland and the EU have also pledged to support the EBRD's initiative for Ukraine through donations.

Founded in 1991, the London-based EBRD is a regional development and financing institution whose purpose is to assist nations in central and eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa to build market economies.

Beginning in 2006, Taiwan has funded the TaiwanBusiness-EBRD Technical Cooperation Fund to back EBRD technical cooperation projects in sustainable resource management, the knowledge economy, carbon reduction technologies and SME development.

Taiwan has so far participated in more than 400 technical cooperation projects through the fund.