Upon completing the signing of a joint communiqué with the El Salvador government on the morning of July 2 local time, President Ma Ying-jeou in the afternoon visited the Metropolitan Cathedral and the Ciudad Mujer (Women's City) in the town of Lourdes.
After arriving at the Metropolitan Cathedral, President Ma was accompanied by El Salvador Vice President Oscar Ortiz and the Archbishop of San Salvador Jose Luis Escobar Alas first to the crypt of the cathedral to pay tribute at the tomb of Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was El Salvador's spiritual leader in his day. On the tour, the president carefully listened to life story of Archbishop Oscar Romero as explained to him by Archbishop Escobar. President Ma expressed his deepest admiration for Archbishop Romero's perseverance in the face of persecution. After that, the president then took a tour of the cathedral and made his way to the altar, where he was briefed on the history of the cathedral.
Next on President Ma's itinerary was a visit to Women's City, an important project of former President Mauricio Funes. The main objective of this project is to improve the living conditions of the women of El Salvador and promote gender equality. The ROC government has been a supporter of this project, so after leaving the cathedral the president headed to the town of Lourdes to learn about the current state of the project.
After President Ma arrived in Lourdes, Secretary of Social Inclusion Vanda Pignato briefed him on the Women's City project and accompanied him on a tour of the Women's City health clinic, children's daycare facility, and vocational training facility.
During his visit to the vocational training facility, women taking part in a training course presented the president with embroidered flags of the two countries, highlighting the bilateral alliance and the success of the courses. President Ma then delivered remarks, stating that he was deeply honored to have the opportunity to visit the world-renowned Women's City project. He commented that the Women's City initiative was an important social welfare project of former President Mauricio Funes, and that former First Lady Vanda Pignato personally was involved in getting the project off the ground.
President Ma noted that reports indicated that Secretary Pignato spoke at the United Nations on June 17 on the success of the Women's City project. The ROC government is now actively taking part in the construction of a sixth Women's City center in Morazan, and the president expressed hope that even more women from El Salvador will be able to benefit from this very meaningful project.