A total of 230 foreign dignitaries will attend President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) inauguration for his second term on Sunday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
In 2008, 530 foreign guests attended Ma’s swearing-in ceremony.
The scaled down size of delegations conformed with the Presidential Office’s plan to organize the ceremony in a simple and cost-effective manner, with a budget of less than NT$6 million (US$203,000).
The budget for Ma’s presidential inauguration in 2008 was about NT$40 million.
Five of the 41 delegations attending will be led by heads of state, one by a governor-general, one by a deputy governor-general, six by prime ministers, two by vice presidents, one by a deputy prime minister and three by foreign ministers, the ministry said.
Deputy Spokesman Steve Shia (夏季昌) said the delegations would be composed of representatives from the nation’s 23 diplomatic allies and from non-diplomatic allies, including the US, Canada, Singapore, the EU, the UK, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia.
The heads of state attending the inauguration will be Kiribatian President Anote Tong, Marshallese President Christopher Loeak, -Nauruan President Sprent Dabwido, Palau President Johnson Toribiong and Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo.
Governor-General of Belize Colville Young, Deputy Governor General of St Kitts and Nevis Edmund Wickham Lawrence, St Vincent Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, Solomon Islander Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo, Tuvaluan Prime Minister Willy Telavi, Burkinabe Prime Minister Luc-Adolphe Tiao, Sao Tome and Principe Prime Minister Patrice Emery Trovoada and Swaziland Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini will also participate.
The US delegation will be led by former White House chief of staff William Daley.
The Japanese delegation will be led by Takeo Hiranuma, chairman of the Japan-ROC Diet Members’ Consultative Council.
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