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.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported
RSS