Jordan News Agency (Petra)
Amman, Oct. 9 (Petra) - Taipei Resident Representative in Jordan, Ismail Mae, said that the volume of two-way trade between Jordan and Taiwan last year grew up by 11%, amounting to 428 million US$.
During a reception held Monday in Amman to celebrate his country's 107 National Day, Mae stressed that Jordan is among the most countries in the region that have cordial relations with Taiwan, as the bilateral cooperative ties between the two countries include trade, investment, industry, science and technology, education, health, agriculture, fishery, tourism and others.
"At present, there are 5 garment factories invested by Taiwanese businessmen in the Kingdom , providing more than 6,300 work opportunities to Jordanians. Two years ago a joint adventure of LED manufactory started in Jordan, which significantly contributed to the Amman lighting project of replacing 119,000 light bulbs with energy-saving LED unit. This project is expected to save half of the energy cost of street lights in Amman" he explained.
He added his country has also been working closely with Jordan in a number of programs related to development and humanitarian relief. "One of the major achievements is the "Waste to Energy Project" at the Ghabawi landfill. In this project, and thanks to the EBRD, Taiwan helped to finance the Greater Amman Municipality with 5 million USD soft loan for constructions proposed to address the City’s waste problem," he said, expressing his delight to learn that the electricity converted from the landfill gas is going to be connected to the national power grid by the end of this year.
With reference to humanitarian relief, the representative said that Taiwan has donated 1,700 tons of rice, worth 2 million USD, to a variety of charities in the country to meet the growing needs of the society. Moreover, many Taiwanese NGOs donated ambulances , wheel chairs, provided scholarships and volunteer medical services, to work shoulder to shoulder with Jordanian friends in this regard, Mae added.
It is worth saying that Taiwan is an island state located at the West Pacific Ocean, and had been developed from a traditional agricultural society to a highly-industrialized country. At present, the island is the world’s 22nd largest economy. According to statistics from the World Trade Organization, it was the 18th-largest exporter and importer worldwide in 2016. As of December 2017, Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves totaled $451.5 billion, the fifth-largest in the world behind China, Japan, Switzerland, and Saudi Arabia.(END)
