President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) met US investment specialist Jim Rogers at the Presidential Office yesterday, with both men expressing confidence in the future of Asia.
Rogers’ visit to Taiwan carried considerable significance for the nation, which is preparing to embrace a new role in Asia and the rest of the world, Ma said.
“Such a change is very meaningful to Taiwan itself and to the region,” Ma said.
Ma said he hoped that improved cross-strait relations and greater government investment in the domestic market would help his administration cope with the adverse impact of growing inflation and a local bourse that continues to trend downward.
“The government is poised to create a new environment suitable for cross-strait development, such as the establishment of direct weekend charter flights between Taiwan and China and Taiwan’s wider opening to Chinese tourists from early July,” Ma said.
Ma said that although this agenda carried a degree of risk, he was convinced that it was the right path to fallow.
Japan and the US had expressed positive sentiments on peaceful development across the Strait, Ma said.
Rogers said he had begun purchasing Taiwanese stocks after seeing the start of a new era between Taiwan and China and in Asia in general.
Describing the 21st century as the “Asian era,” Rogers said China and Taiwan stood a good chance of experiencing broader advancement.
Rogers, who founded the Quantum Fund with George Soros, is one of the world’s most conspicuous investment pundits.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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