Taiwan denies giving private donation to Panama's first lady

Feb 1, 2007, 7:55 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan on Thursday denied giving a 5-million-US-dollar donation to the first lady of Panama, saying the money was part of Taiwan's official humanitarian donation and will go into Panama's treasury.

'There was an open donation ceremony on January 17. Panamanian First Vice President and Foreign Minister Samuel Lewis Navarro said the money would go into Panama's treasury and its use would be supervised by Panama's auditing department,' Yeh Pi-fei, deputy Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, told a news conference.

'Since President Martin Torrijos came to power, his priority has been social welfare and caring for the disadvantaged. So when Taiwan and Panama discussed cooperation projects, the priority was also to help the disadvantaged. This is a meaningful cooperation project,' she said.

On Wednesday, the Panamanian daily La Prensa reported that Taiwan had given a 5-million-US-dollar private donation to the office of Panama's First Lady Vivian Fernandez de Torrijos.

The article said the donation was not part of the official donation Taiwan made in 2006 which included helping Panama build a 230-bed hospital and building highways in far-away regions in Panama.

The article quoted China's trade office in Panama as accusing Taiwan of using chequebook diplomacy to maintain its diplomatic ties with Panama.

Although La Prensa said the donation was 5 million dollars, Taiwan's donation was actually 5.5 million dollars, presented at an open ceremony to Panamanian First Vice President and Foreign Minister Samuel Lewis Navarro on January 17.

At the ceremony, Lewis said the money would be used to carry out a 'barrier-free life' project for the physically challenged and a 'micro-enterprise development' plan, according to a report in the Taipei Times on January 19.

The internationaly-isolated Taiwan currently is recognized by only 24 countries, half of them are in Latin America.

China, which sees Taiwan as its breakaway province, is wooing these countries to switch recognition from Taipei to Beijing. China and Taiwan often accuse each other of using chequebook diplomacy to win over each other's diplomatic allies.

In recent years, several former Central American leaders have been implicated in corruption scandals, including allegedly accepting donations from Taiwan.