On 12 September, Taipei City hosted a commemoration ceremony for Taiwan’s 25 years of collaboration with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and 10 years since the establishment of the Taiwan Office for EBRD Business Development. During the ceremony, the Secretary-General of the ROC Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Paul Wen-liang Chang, and his EBRD counterpart Enzo Quattrociocche met and exchanged gifts. Chang said the government will continue to expand two-way ties by dispatching additional industry experts to the ERBD; inviting more EBRD clients to Taiwan for technical visits; and deepening co-operation in Taiwan’s most competitive sectors, namely green energy, ICT and smart cities. The ceremony was followed by the Business Forum on Greener and Smarter Cities, with more than 100 representatives present from Taiwan's business community. The EBRD is a London based multilateral development bank that is owned by 65 countries and operates in 36 countries across central and eastern Europe, central Asia and north Africa. Taiwan has been involved in long-standing co-operation with the EBRD since its inception in 1991, and Taiwan's total contributions to technical co-operation funds and co-financing have amounted to 180.5 million USD.
