In the afternoon of the second day of her arrival at the Republic of Palau, Vice President Annette Lu attended the Palau Royal Resort's opening ceremony after a tea with the press. Before the ceremony, the vice president and Palauan President Tommy Remengesau Jr. planted two flame trees on the two sides of the hotel's entrance as a symbol of friendship between the two countries and celebration of the opening of the establishment.
Soon after that, the vice president, President Remengesau, Royal Hotel Group chairman Lin Ching-po and Palau Royal Resort president Liao Wan-ying jointly cut the ribbon in the inauguration ceremony. President Remengesau was also invited to deliver a speech during the ceremony.
In her speech, the vice president first expressed her gratitude to the Palauan government and people for the warm invitation. She said that the ardor of the people is as warm as the weather. The fact that she came here for the opening ceremony, she said, was to fulfill a promise previously made by President Chen Shui-bian to President Remengesau. President Remengesau invited President Chen to attend this event in February this year. But since President Chen was busy, and that the vice president is deeply concerned about the development of Taiwan's tourism industry, she was asked to make the trip with the hope of promoting the tourism industry between the two countries.
The vice president pointed out that tourism for Palau is as important as high-tech for Taiwan and the inauguration of the Palau Royal Resort could be compared to the inauguration of a 12-inch wafer factory in Taiwan in significance. The vice president said that Palau's beauty couldn't be fully appreciated if she had not visited the island in person. Not only the scenery of Palau is beautiful, but also the people are happy. Palau is like the paradise for the vacationers, therefore, the Royal Hotel has made a right choice to invest in Palau.
The vice president said the Taiwanese are busy all the time, and often they do not know what made them so busy. As soon as she arrived at Palau she realized what she had been busy with. Therefore, she is suggesting that the Far Eastern Air Transport increase its scheduled flights to Palau on Fridays with return flights back to Taiwan on Sundays to take the busiest Taiwanese for a weekend vacation in Palau. The vice president also urged chairman Lin Ching-po to organize Taiwanese cuisine classes to attract more tourists to Taiwan.
Since vice president Lu was to end her two-day trip tomorrow, she showed her regret that that she had to leave this beautiful island so soon and once again expressed her gratitude to President Remengesau. She strongly believes that there will be more and more Taiwanese tourists coming to Palau after the media coverage.
Following that, the vice president met Taiwanese nationals at the Palau Royal Resort, including Ambassador Clark Chen Kuo-huang, members of the agricultural mission, civil servicemen and Chinese language teachers as she also gave them a bonus as a token of appreciation.
In the evening, the vice president and President Remengesau as well as other Palauan politicians attended a banquet at the Palau Royal Resort. The vice president said that she had a telephone conversation with President Chen an hour ago and was told that he saw television footages of her snorkeling in Palau.
President Chen said she is the best tourism spokeswoman and believes that there would be more Taiwanese tourists visiting Palau after her promotion. The vice president recalls her visit to the Green Islands three years ago when she was also wearing a diving suit, doing promotion of tourism in Green Island. In the past, the Green Island was a place where political prisoners were kept. It was a mysterious place and completely cut off from the outer world. But after the media broadcasted the footages of her, there are about 500,000 visitors going to the Green Islands each year and the Green island has since become a great place for snorkeling.