On the day of the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday urged the opposition to engage in rational dialogue and refrain from blindly opposing the pact with Beijing.
Ma said the pact would not only benefit small and medium-size businesses, the agricultural sector and service industries, but also motivate foreign investors to take advantage of Taiwan’s position in East Asia to establish regional headquarters here.
”We hope to build Taiwan into a global innovation center, so we passed the Industrial Innovation Act [產業創新條例] last month,” Ma said as he met members of the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce at the Presidential Office. “We also hope to transform Taiwan into a trade hub in the Asia-Pacific as well as a regional springboard. The ECFA will help us achieve part of the goals.”
Ma said he hoped the accord would make Taiwanese businesspeople want to keep their roots in Taiwan and make the country their global base, adding he also hoped foreign investors would make the most of the country’s geographical advantage and make Taiwan into their regional center.
However, he added Taiwan must “advance gradually and entrench itself in every step.”
In an afternoon meeting with Clayton Christensen, a business administration professor at Harvard Business School, Ma told his US guest the ECFA carried profound significance in ushering in a brand new era for Taiwan.
“In some way, ECFA is an innovation,” he said. “We must keep on having innovative ideas so we can stride forward.”
Ma said innovation was one of the characteristics of the speedy recovery of Taiwan’s economy. The others were an increase in job opportunities, reduction in greenhouse emissions and participation in regional economic integration, he said.
At a different setting yesterday while attending the promotion of military officers in Taipei, Ma told the armed forces that the ECFA would be conducive to peace and prosperity across the Taiwan Strait, but that the military must stay alert and be mindful of any possible danger in times of peace.
Ma said the trade deal pushed cross-strait peace and prosperity one step forward. Cross-strait detente benefited not only the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, but also the region and the world, he said.
“Taiwan’s potential enemy is right across the Strait,” he said, “but we must also engage with them in various aspects.”
Taiwan must keep abreast of the change of situation at home and abroad, he said. His military strategy is to build a small but strong and elite army, he said.
“We don’t ask for war, but we must be ready for one,” he said. “We will buy necessary weapons, if we can afford them. We will use the minimum resources to maximize the prevention of a war.”
In a related development, the Presidential Office yesterday said the ECFA, when it proceeds to the legislature for deliberation, could be treated “in the light of a treaty” rather than as a “quasi-treaty.”
Presidential Office spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) made the remarks while rejecting a Chinese-language China Times report yesterday that said Ma claimed ECFA should be regarded as a “quasi-treaty.”
Ma, instead, thought it should be regarded as something like a treaty, but without the restrictions of a treaty, Lo said.
Lo also dismissed that Ma had claimed in the same report the trade deal would boost economic growth to 8 percent, saying the figure was merely one of many forecasts cited by the president.
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