Establishing a Free Trade Area of Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), pushing for Taiwan’s membership in the WHO and improving economic ties with other members would be the main objectives at this year’s APEC meeting, former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (連戰) said yesterday.
Lien, who was appointed by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) as the nation’s envoy at this year’s APEC summit meeting in Lima, Peru, made the remarks during a press conference in Taipei.
Lien is scheduled to leave for Lima on Wednesday.
He said that other than the challenges commonly faced by all economies — the global financial crisis, unstable raw material prices and natural disasters — Taiwan’s international trade relations are “threatened by trade protectionism, such as exclusive regional economic cooperation and Free Trade Agreements [FTA],” and that “APEC is a very good platform for us to try to resolve such challenges.”
Therefore, Lien said, one of the main objectives would be establishing an FTAAP.
“Many people have asked me if we will try to sign FTAs with the US or Singapore,” Lien said. “I’d say that, while it’s important to sign FTAs with individual countries, we would gain more if we could be part of an Asia-Pacific FTA. So that’s what we’ll focus on this time.”
Taiwan’s membership in the WHO, Lien said, would be another focus.
“Natural disaster prevention and post-disaster reconstruction is one of the topics that will be discussed during the meeting. Therefore, from a strictly disease prevention point of view, issues concerning our WHO membership bid can certainly be raised,” Lien told the press conference.
Asked by reporters if he would seize the opportunity to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and talk about cross-strait relations, Lien said that he would certainly like to meet Hu, but would limit any discussion to the economy.
“We have very little time and a lot of economic or trade issues to talk about,” Lien said. “It’s an especially scarce opportunity since we’ll have our top economic officials with us on the team and they [China] will have theirs on their team — so this is a perfect chance to talk about such issues.”
Lien then said that he would not worry about how he and Hu would address each other.
“We’ve met several times already. He always calls me ‘[KMT honorary] chairman Lien’ and I call him ‘[Chinese Communist Party] Secretary-General Hu’ — I actually wouldn’t mind if he calls me ‘leader’s representative,’ I’ll call him ‘leader’ in that case,” Lien said.
Lien went on to say that he would like to meet as many world leaders as possible, but that “everything is still being arranged by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
READY: The CGA said it closely monitored China’s maritime exercise, deployed vessels to shadow the Chinese ships one-on-one and set up emergency response centers Chinese navy and coast guard ships have returned to China, signaling the end of a massive maritime exercise, authorities said yesterday. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) released images it said showed Chinese vessels sailing north in rough seas past Taiwan on Thursday, on their way to China. “All the Chinese coast guard went back to China yesterday, so although they have not officially made any announcement, we consider it over,” CGA Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said. Beijing has not confirmed the drills and the Chinese Ministry of National Defense did not say whether the maneuvers had taken place when asked at a
People can take the Taipei MRT free of charge if they access it at Nanjing Sanmin Station or Taipei Arena Station on the Green Line between 12am and 6am on Jan. 1, the Taipei Department of Transportation said on Friday, outlining its plans to ease crowding during New Year’s events in the capital. More than 200,000 people are expected to attend New Year’s Eve events in Taipei, with singer A-mei (張惠妹) performing at the Taipei Dome and the city government’s New Year’s Eve party at Taipei City Hall Plaza, the department said. As people have tended to use the MRT’s Blue or
PUBLIC TRANSPORT: As some roads would be fully or partially closed, people are advised to take the MRT, with services expanded to accommodate more riders This year’s Taipei Marathon, which has obtained its first gold label certification from World Athletics, is to be held from 5am to 1pm tomorrow and would have 28,000 participants. The race is to start from the Taipei City Plaza and would go through major roads throughout the city, with traffic control implemented from 6am to 2pm, officials said. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system and New Taipei City MRT Circle line would start operating at 5am on the day of the race, they said. The race would cover Renai Road, Xinyi Road, Hangzhou S Road, Aiguo east and west roads,
Taipei is participating in Osaka’s Festival of Lights this year, with a 3m-tall bubble tea light installation symbolizing Taiwan’s bubble tea culture. The installation is designed as a bubble tea cup and features illustrations of Taipei’s iconic landmarks, such as Taipei 101, the Red House and North Gate, as well as soup dumplings and the matchmaking deity the Old Man Under the Moon (月下老人), affectionately known as Yue Lao (月老). Taipei and Osaka have collaborated closely on tourism and culture since Taipei first participated in the festival in 2018, the Taipei City Department of Information and Tourism said. In February, Osaka represented
RSS