President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday he hoped the economy would improve this year, but acknowledged that it would not be easy.
“It will take a lot of effort and maybe some luck, because much of it cannot be changed by our efforts alone,” Ma said while speaking at the Presidential Office’s Lunar New Year greetings ceremony yesterday morning.
Ma said the public might have the impression that he did not jump to the “front line” in responding to public concerns, but that was because his constitutional duty is to set policy for cross-strait relations, national defense and foreign affairs.
PHOTO: CNA
There is no such thing as a “front line” or “second line,” Ma said, because he and Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) participated in the decision-making process for major government policies, such as providing 100 percent guarantees on bank deposits, issuing consumer vouchers, implementing economic stimulus measures and creating jobs.
Ma also lauded his policies on national defense, cross-strait affairs and other foreign affairs, saying his approach had yielded positive effects and received “universal welcome” from the international community.
Ma said Beijing’s gift of two giant pandas demonstrated the improved atmosphere in the Taiwan Strait. What mattered was not that the public had the opportunity to see the rare animals, he said, but that Taiwan had reached the global standard in conserving endangered species.
“First, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species [CITES] was not against the matter,” Ma said. “And second, both sides of the Taiwan Strait look at the pandas from a humane point of view, rather than from a political viewpoint.”
The secretariat of CITES considered the importation of the pandas from China as “domestic trade” and as such did not need to be reported to CITES.
Ma said that eased cross-strait tensions not only took a lot of pressure off his administration, but also “pushed forward government policies in the right direction.”
“There won’t be any unexpected or strange situation,” he said. “That is the normal thing that a normal country and a normal government should do.”
Ma said that he expected to see a challenge on the economic front, but that a clean, efficient, proactive and friendly government would help resolve the problem.
Later, speaking at the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Lunar New Year greeting ceremony, Ma said the direction of government policy to combat the global financial crisis was correct and that the Executive Yuan deserved recognition for formulating good policies, including the consumer vouchers.
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