President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) pledged in his New Year’s Day address yesterday to maintain peace across the Taiwan Strait and called on Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (習近平), China’s next leader, to work with him in promoting peaceful cross-strait development.
“The people on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are all ethnic Chinese, and the leaders of the two sides should keep long-term peace across the Taiwan Strait as a top priority. The institutionalization of cross-strait ties will help deepen mutual understanding between the people and consolidate cross-strait peace,” he said at the Presidential Office.
Stressing that the nation will continue to play a constructive role in promoting peace in East Asia, Ma said he hoped to cooperate with Xi to promote cross-strait peace on the basis of the so-called “1992 consensus” and promised to relax restrictions on Chinese investments while further opening up the nation to Chinese students and individual Chinese tourists.
Ma reiterated that the government’s top priorities were to speed up negotiations under the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) and begin a review of the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例) to facilitate cross-strait exchanges.
The president outlined four challenges facing Taiwan — global industrial competition, formation of regional free-trade zones, a shortage of talent and the impact of an aging population on the pension system — and promised to find solutions and lead the nation forward.
“The global economy is beginning to show the first signs of recovery, and Taiwan’s economy will definitely perform better than last year. It is crucial for us to make the most of this opportunity to speed up reform and strong measures must be taken to meet the four challenges,” he said.
As global industrial competitions grows, Taiwan’s technology sector and original equipment manufacturing (OEM) business model face increasing difficulties. A structural transformation of industries is needed to maintain Taiwan’s international competitiveness, he said, stressing the importance of local industries embracing value-added innovation to turn the nation into a major provider of key components and precision equipment in the global supply chain.
Ma also expressed concern about the nation’s marginalization in regional free-trade zones as talks on the ASEAN-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership are set to begin early this year. In addition, China, Japan and South Korea are preparing for formal talks on the East Asia Free Trade Area in March or April, while the US continues to promote the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
The government will step up efforts to build Taiwan into a free-trade island and seek to sign free-trade or economic pacts with major trade partners, including Singapore, New Zealand and the US, as well as join the TPP within eight years, he said.
The president also promised to solve a shortage of talent in various industries by launching industry-academia cooperation projects to cultivate workers that industries need.
As to the thorny issue of pension reform, Ma said the system would suffer a deeper deficit in the near future because of a low birthrate and an aging population, and called for more public cooperation, tolerance and understanding of proposed reform measures, especially for year-end bonuses for retired civil servants, military personnel and public-school teachers.
“We aim to make comprehensive, pragmatic and transparent improvements to our pension systems. Only by starting pension reform now can we come up with a fairer system that takes care of the needs of future generations,” he said.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a