President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) visited former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) yesterday to wish him a happy Lunar New Year.
During the 50-minute visit, Ma and Lee discussed energy conservation and water resources, said Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦), adding that Lee also expressed concern about medical care, asking the government to attach importance to the development of related industries.
Ma’s plan to sign an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China, however, was not discussed, Wang said.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
Lee urged the government to pay close attention the problem of inflows of hot money, Wang said.
Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) paid a separate visit to Lee yesterday morning.
Earlier in the day, Ma visited former vice president and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (連戰) after making a trip to Taipei’s Ciyou Temple (慈祐宮) in Songshan District (松山), one of the oldest temples dedicated to the goddess Matsu.
Ma prayed for a safe and promising year for the country and distributed red envelops with chocolate gold coins to temple visitors. He also promoted the ECFA plan.
“Taiwan’s aim in signing an ECFA with [China] is to boost business for everyone and enhance the country’s competitiveness,” Ma said.
As the economy has shown signs of recovery, tacking unemployment would be one of the government’s priorities, he said.
Ma said Taiwan should sign an ECFA as soon as possible because many Taiwanese firms operating in China will lose their competitives edge in that market as ASEAN-made products, which face zero tariffs as of this year, grab a bigger market share.
ASEAN-China trade agreements will hurt Taiwanese firms and result in more unemployment in this country, Ma said, adding that signing an ECFA would be good for the nation’s future and create jobs.
The government will pay attention to ECFA’s impact on farmers and workers and will spend NT$95 billion (US$ 2.96 billion) in 10 years to help those sectors.
Critics, however, have warned the pact would jeopardize Taiwan’s sovereignty, make it economically dependent on China and lead to an influx of Chinese capital and goods.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
SOUTH CHINA SEA? The Philippine president spoke of adding more classrooms and power plants, while skipping tensions with China over disputed areas Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday blasted “useless and crumbling” flood control projects in a state of the nation address that focused on domestic issues after a months-long feud with his vice president. Addressing a joint session of congress after days of rain that left at least 31 dead, Marcos repeated his recent warning that the nation faced a climate change-driven “new normal,” while pledging to investigate publicly funded projects that had failed. “Let’s not pretend, the people know that these projects can breed corruption. Kickbacks ... for the boys,” he said, citing houses that were “swept away” by the floods. “Someone has
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole