President Chen Shui-bian received Kevin Cullinane, World President of the Junior Chamber International, this morning. Besides expressing his welcome to his visit on behalf of the Republic of China and its people, the president also lauded the Junior Chamber Taiwan for winning the right to host the 2007 Junior Chamber International annual meeting during a JC meeting held in Macau last week.
The president said that he is also a member of the Junior Chamber International because he used to be a member of the Taipei Chamber International. His membership card number is 1228, which he shall never forget. Besides, the Junior Chamber International is the first international association that he ever participated. At that time, he was still a young lawyer. The world conference of the Junior Chamber International in Osaka 21 years ago was also the first international conference he ever attended. He believes that becoming a member of JCI was one of the important factors that led him to become "President A-bian." "Once a Junior Chamber member, always a Junior Chamber member," he said, feeling honored to become the first president with a JC background.
The president said that some people thought he was too young to run the presidential election back in 2000, and was not suitable to be a national leader. At that time, he used to reply with a motto of the Junior Chamber International - 'junior chamber is the cradle of young leaders.' Such as in the case of world president Cullinane. He is young, but he definitely has the capability to lead all the JCI members around the world, because young leaders are not only the trend of the world, it is also a tradition of the Junior Chamber. When he became president in 2000, the first public activity he attended was the participation in the Junior Chamber International's annual meeting in Kaohsiung. Besides Cullinane, he also met with the world presidents Bruce A Rector and Fernando Sanchez-Arias in 2003 and 2004, respectively, that he feels deeply honored.
The president is also affirmative of the 3M targets (Membership, Marketing, Media) of the Junior Chamber International, especially that the Junior Chamber International has made many outstanding contributions in every domain. He believes that under the leadership of World President Cullinane, the Junior Chamber International's annual meting in Vienna will be a great success.
The president especially pointed out that when he attended the JCI annual meeting last August, he encouraged the members to lobby for the sponsorship of the Asia-Pacific annual meeting of 2007. The Taiwan Junior Chamber did not fail his expectations. It obtained the right in Macau last week to organize the annual meeting. The president feels honored to be able to attend two annual meetings of the Junior Chamber International during his tenure as president of the Repbublic of China.
World President Cullinane then said that the Junior Chamber International's biggest goal is to foster outstanding leaders for a better society, and that President Chen is the exemplar of the Junior Chamber International. Members of the chamber are found in the 5,000 cities around the world. They not only provide young people with education, development, but also create opportunities for young people. The president's support for the activities of the Junior Chamber International shows that the Taiwan government and the chamber share the same goal. Cullinane hopes that they could join hands in bringing peace to the world.
At the end of the meeting, President Chen donated US$100,000 to the Junior Chamber International on behalf of the Taiwan Junior Chamber to support the JCI social activities around the world.