President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday acknowledged the organizer of this year's APEC summit for using his photograph and referring to him as “president” on the Web site and official documents, saying it indicated his more conciliatory cross-strait policies were working.
“This shows that the thaw in relations between mainland China and Taiwan has generated may opportunities,” Ma said. “I am not a wishful thinker and I am not naive. Obviously, our efforts have generated a lot of goodwill across the Taiwan Strait.”
Ma made the remarks during a speech he delivered in English at a business round table organized by the Economist Intelligence Unit at the Far Eastern Plaza Hotel in Taipei yesterday morning.
PHOTO: CNA
As Taiwan's head of state is barred from attending the APEC summit because of Chinese opposition, Ma appointed former vice president and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (連戰) as his representative at this year's APEC summit in Lima, Peru.
While Taiwan uses the name “Chinese Taipei” as a member of APEC, Ma was addressed by his official title on the APEC Web site. It marked the first time that the country's president was introduced in an APEC document and the first time since Taiwan became an APEC member-economy in 1991 that a host country published a picture of a Taiwanese president on the Web site.
In addition to hailing the diplomatic feat, Ma yesterday said that his administration also got “what we want from the United States in terms of military procurement.”
Ma said it was his campaign promise to improve cross-strait relations and he has been negotiating with Beijing since he was inaugurated in May. Two agreements were signed in June, followed by four more this month, he said.
The four agreements were on cross-strait aviation routes, sea transportation links, postal services and a food safety mechanism.
American Institute in Taiwan Director Stephen Young said the APEC summit would give Lien the opportunity to consult with leaders from around the Asia-Pacific region to make Taiwan's views known and contribute to the global response to the unfolding global financial crisis.
“This is why we support Taiwan being able to participate in international organizations like APEC, the WTO and the Asian Development Bank and have its voice heard,” Young said.
On regional economic integration, Ma said Taiwan must make efforts to sign free trade agreements (FTA) with ASEAN countries so it will not be left out of the regional economic bloc.
Recognizing that animosity with Beijing was the main obstacle to that goal, Ma said the country must “remove that roadblock” and work toward that objective.
“We started almost 10 years ago but accomplished nothing over the past eight years,” he said.
“We hope this is something we should do. If we can sign free trade agreements with the mainland, Singapore and other countries in the region, certainly we can avoid the very serious impact of being left out of the regional economic integration,” he said.
Young said he welcomed moves by the Ma administration to reduce regulation and improve the business environment. He believed that Taiwan's future economic growth would depend on deregulation and liberalization.
“By inviting competition, Taiwan can create the kind of business environment where continual improvement in performance is the key to companies success,” he said. “Enhancing the ease of doing business here will surely attract more of them.”
Describing Taiwan-US relations as “strong and multi-dimensional,” Young said Washington would continue to work closely with Taipei on a broad agenda.
This includes active discussion of the government procurement agreement under the WTO, he said.
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