Taipei, Oct. 6 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian said Wednesday that he believes that there will be no conflict across the Taiwan Strait during his final term as president, since Taiwan will not do anything provocative during that time.
At a meeting with Terry Meguid, head of Investment Banking of Morgan Stanley, Chen stressed that if Taiwan does nothing to provoke Beijing, he can almost assure that there will be no war between the two sides before 2008, when he will step down as president.
Chen also said that his administration has used economic and non-economic enticements to lure more foreign investments to Taiwan.
As for non-economic incentives, Chen said he puts a great deal of importance on cross-strait ties and wishes to maintain the status quo between the two sides, since peaceful cross-strait relations are key to attracting foreign investments.
In addition to welcoming Meguid to Taiwan at a time when the island is promoting financial reforms, Chen said he admired the MSCI for its increase of market weighting of the MSCI Taiwan Index.