M&C reports: The government of Taiwan has handed half-a-million dollars over to Nicaragua to finance projects to strengthen the country's institutions and to promote investment and foreign trade.

Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry officials said Thursday in Managua that the assistance was part of an agreement that Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Samuel Santos and Taiwanese Ambassador Wu Chin-mu signed Tuesday.

Santos said it highlighted the 'extraordinary cooperation, collaboration and understanding' between the two countries since Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega was inaugurated in January 2007.