Improving cross-strait relations should be one of the most important issues facing President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) during his remaining two years in office, Legisla-tive Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said yesterday.
"I recommended to the president before the Dec. 3 local elections that improving cross-strait relations should be placed at the top of his agenda before his terms expires in two years' time," Wang said.
"I told him that the public hopes to see a new cross-strait policy. I will not take the initiative nor has the president asked me to [negotiate with China], but if the country needs me, I'm more than happy to serve at the pleasure of the president," he said.
In addition to proposing to the president that talks between China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) and the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) of Taiwan should be resumed as soon as possible, Wang said that he told the president that the planned second Economic Development Advisory Conference should address non-economic issues, such as cross-strait affairs and the resolution of political confrontation.
Wang said that he made the recommendation while meeting with the president regarding the president's appointment of his APEC envoy.
Wang was appointed by the president to represent him at the APEC summit in Busan, South Korea last month. After pressure from China, Seoul objected to Wang's selection and asked Chen to send someone with a stronger economics background instead.
The appointment was seen by analysts as a gesture to award Wang's impartiality in the legislature.
Wang said that although Beijing has more than once asked pan-blue lawmakers to relay its wish to see him visit China, he does not have any such plans at the moment.
It is important to obtain government authorization, Wang said, or it will be a waste of time even if both sides eventually reach a concrete agreement.
"We simply cannot ignore the Chinese market while mapping out the nation's economy policy," Wang said.
"He must come up with a more solid policy on how to make cross-strait transportation convenient and keep Taiwanese businesspeople here [in Taiwan]," he said.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
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