Tue, Jun 26, 2007 page3

• Ma touts APEC as basis for regional trade deals

  `TAIWAN'S TURN' The nation faces being marginalized unless it uses the regional body to promote deals with neighboring countries, the KMT presidential hopeful said

  • By Flora Wang / STAFF REPORTER
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  Using APEC to promote trade between Taiwan and other countries in the region is the nation's only way out of the economic gridlock facing the nation, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an address at a two-day investment forum which opened in Taipei yesterday.

  Ma told attendees at the forum, which is being presented by UBS Securities (Taiwan), that the nation should take advantage of the APEC platform to develop the kind of relationship that other countries conduct by means of free-trade agreements (FTAs).

  "Otherwise, in two or 10 years' time, Taiwan will face a very difficult situation by being cornered by all these FTAs between our neighbors," he said in a speech titled "Taiwan's Turn."

  

  Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou wields a prop baseball bat as the party endorsed his nomination at an event in Taoyuan on Sunday where Ma called for reconciliation with China as a way to improve Taiwan's economy and its international standing.

  PHOTO: AP

  Ma said that the nation's interests were being jeopardized by more countries joining ASEAN while Taiwan remains unable to sign FTAs with Singapore and the US.

  He said he considered Taiwan's interests "in broader terms," and that the main focus of his presidential campaign would therefore be "saving the Taiwanese economy."

  Ma said he would like to move beyond "fake issues of unification and independence" because "the nation gained its independence in 1912 when Sun Yat-sen [孫逸仙] overthrew the Manchu government."

  "No country in the world declares independence twice," he said.

  He said "the dogmatic ideology" of Taiwanese independence had deprived Taiwan of its geographic advantage of being located in the center of East Asia.

  "It takes six to seven hours to fly from Taipei to Shanghai. The time needed [to travel there] has actually removed Taipei from where it is to the location of Jakarta or New Delhi," he said.

  Ma added that this was a result of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government's "unreasonable restrictions on cross-strait exchanges."

  He said he would seek to safeguard the nation's dignity, adding that this would not necessarily conflict with its economic interests.

  He said the KMT's response to the issue of sovereignty was using the so-called "1992 consensus" to allow a grey area for both Taiwan and China.

  "When you have a situation like that, you have to use your imagination. So the `1992 consensus' is something we call a `masterpiece of ambiguity,' where each side could interpret the nature [of `one China']," he said.

  "We still accept the principle of `one China,' but our `one China' is the Republic of China. That is the official name of the country," he said, adding that "we don't care" what China's interpretation of "one China" was.

  "We will continue to hold that as the basis of negotiation," he added.

  Ma is set to start a national tour next month to drum up grassroots support, a staff member with his campaign office said yesterday.

  Ma and his running mate, Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), will conduct an intensive nationwide tour to explain and promote the KMT's national policy to local people and solicit their support, the staffer said.

  They will stay in each of the regions for 10 to 15 days, beginning with Taichung, Changhua and Nantou, followed by Yunlin, Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Pingtung, eastern Taiwan and the outlying islands, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Taipei, Keelung and Ilan.

  The staff member said the itinerary showed that Ma believes central Taiwan will be crucial to winning the election, and that he hoped to narrow the gap in votes with the DPP in the south while consolidating support in the north and east.

  The staffer said that Ma's campaign office would use local KMT campaign resources to expand the scale of the campaign team.

  Additional reporting by CNA

  Also see story:
  Editorial: It's time to dispel the economy myth
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