President Chen Shui-bian inspected the "Hai An 3 Exercise" of the Coast Guard Administration this morning. Before delivering his speech, he reviewed the ground units, motorboat fleet and the flyover. He also gave bonus to the units participating in the drill.
In his speech, the president said that in order to strengthen the country's anti-terror capability on the sea and further promote the plan of building an ocean country, he especially raised four proposals to the authorities concerned for consideration. They are the strengthening of anti-terror training, establishing of multi-layer patrol forces, enhancing of rescue operation and actively promoting maritime affairs.
The president's speech is as follows:
I am very happy today to be here with Premier Hsieh at Kaohsiung to attend the "Hai An 3" drills. The drills we just witnessed showed the sophistication and the high morale of our Coast Guard members, the National Airborne Service Corps, and personnel from the Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau, Harbor Police Force and the Chinese Petroleum Corporation who demonstrated their skills and close cooperation in the exercise.
"Be ready any time and deliver the punch at the critical moment" is the guideline the government adopts in meeting any crisis and outside threats. This reflects our strategic concept of "be prepared for any eventuality." Through today's exercise, A-bian has deep faith that the government could successfully execute the "anti-sea terror and protect Taiwan" mission. At this juncture, I would like to congratulate all people involved in this exercise for their superb performance and devotion to duty.
The September 11 terror attack in the U.S. alerted the whole world about terrorist infiltration and threat. Only through comprehensive regular trainings and crisis prevention schemes as well as the application of the crisis' standard operation procedures could the harm be reduced to the minimum.
In fact, not only terrorist attack can harm people's well-being and safety, such incidents as the the recent poisoning case, blackmails and frauds can also wrought the same havoc. The government will spare no efforts to protect the people from these threats. In addition to monitoring the progress on the solving of criminal cases, I have also instructed the police and security authorities to introduce a social and security "sky net" which would serve to discourage crimes and at the same time help crack down on criminal offenses at the shortest time to provide a secured and acceptable living environment for the people.
Although Taiwan hasn't yet encountered any terrorist attack, prevention is still more important than dealing with the disaster and preventing terrorism is absolutely necessary to protect the people's life and national security. In order to perfect our country's anti-terror mechanism, the Executive Yuan has already established the "National Anti-terror Management Office" and drew up plans to deal with different models of terrorism as well as assigning special roles to different government departments to efficiently counter any terrorist actions. Taiwan is an ocean country. Anti-terrorism on the sea is of course of great importance in the fight on terrorism. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen anti-terrorism on the sea to protect Taiwan's security.
In order to strengthen our country's capability of anti-terrorism on the sea and the realization of the "maritime state" endeavor, I would like to make the following proposals to you:
1. Strengthening anti-terrorism training, insuring national security:
Since the September 11 incident in the U.S., joint anti-terror mechanism in the world has greatly improved. Terrorist organizations are now less likely to launch a big-scale strike either in the air or on the ground. Terrorist attack from the sea is now a more propable alternative. Aiming at effectively countering terrorism on the sea, the Coast Guard Administration has established a special force team as an effective means to deal with such contingency. I believe that you have already witnessed the capabilities of these anti-terror elites.
2. Establishing multi-layer patrolling capabilities, upgrading joint service effectiveness:
The Coast Guard Administration is not only in charge of preventing smuggling of contrabands, illegal entry and crimes on the sea, it is also the vanguard in defending territorial waters. Recently, Chinese oceanic research vessels have oftenly intruded into our exclusive water economic zone. They pretend to do oceanic research, but in reality, they are gathering intelligence related to our seashore. This is not only violating our right to rule over our seas, but it is also bringing tension to the two-strait relations. In order to effectively protect the interest of our country's exclusive economic zone and the safety of our seamen, I think that we should strengthen the three-dimensional patrolling forces and put the mechanism into full play to raise the scope of the nation's enforcement of the laws on the sea and maritime affairs.
3. Improving sea rescue operations, securing human safety:
The sea surrounds Taiwan. Whether it is national security, economical development or people's daily needs, all are closely related to the sea. Under the close cooperation of the Coast Guard Administration as well as other concerned authorities, the sea disaster rescue mechanism and infrastructure have been gradually centralized. In the future, the private sector will also join forces to provide better rescue equipment so that the rescue capabilities can be enhanced, as the goal is to provide a full-scale help and rescue to protect the people's life and safety on the sea.
4. Aggressively promoting maritime affairs, continuously extending activity on the sea:
Taiwan is an island. The wide resources in the sea have bred the various ocean cultures and are the lifelines of many fishermen and related industrials. In order to realize the goal of an "maritime state," the Executive Yuan has already established the "Executive Yuan Ocean Affairs Promotion Committee," which has already held three meetings and made drafts on "ocean policy overview" and "ocean affairs policy development plan." It has also brought our country's ocean policy towards an important new milestone.
The Coast Guard Administration was principally in charge of law enforcement in our territorial waters. Since Minister Hsu was appointed, he aggressively pushed for the "law enforcement on the sea" and "maritime affairs service." I am highly supportive of the idea of "ocean country" that Minister Hsu proposed, and hope that we can achieve together the new goal of becoming an environmental, safe and prosperous maritime state.
Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to the units and representatives present at this drill and to all the members of the Coast Guard Administration who are on duty at their regular posts for contributing their efforts in enforcing national security.
Thank you gentlemen. I wish you health and luck. Thank you!