Taipei, Sept. 15 (CNA) The first Democratic Pacific Assembly will open in Taipei Sept. 19 with representatives from 24 countries participating, Vice President Annette Lu said Monday.
Speaking at a press conference, Lu said that she and Benjamin Gilman, a former chairman of the United States House of Representatives Committee on International Relations, will serve as initiators of the meeting, which will run through Sept. 21.
The topics of the meeting will be democracy, peace and prosperity, Lu said, adding that some 65 foreign guests, including vice presidents of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, former president of Ecuador Janmil Mahuad Witt, and Robert A. Mundell, Nobel Prize winner in economics in 1999, have confirmed that they will attend the three-day meeting.
President Chen Shui-bian will be invited to address the opening ceremony of the assembly and Mundell will give a keynote speech on European integration, Lu revealed.
Chen is paying close attention to the upcoming meeting and will host a dinner party at the Presidential Office Sept. 18 in honor of the participants, Lu went on.
The vice president said that the meeting is aimed at consolidating democracy around the world and seeking to influence non-democratic nations.
Also, she continued, the meeting is expected to announce the implementation of a "Discovery of Taiwan" program slated for next March to coincide with Taiwan's next presidential election.
Under the program, foreign participants of the Democratic Pacific Assembly will nominate young leaders of their respective countries to visit Taiwan to witness the island's development in democracy, the hi-tech industry, small- and medium-sized enterprises, volunteer work and women's movements.
The committee set up to promote the assembly will also raise funds to finance the program, Lu noted.
By organizing the assembly, Lu said she hopes Taiwan will show the world its dynamism in participating in international activities and will contribute to the development of its tourism industry.