This morning Vice President Annette Lu received the Vice President of Liberal International, Mr. Hans Van Baalen and his wife, and extended her welcome to the visitors.
The vice president said that Taiwan suffered heavy economic losses and the death of 12 people when typhoon Haitang struck the island this month. She recalled that when she was magistrate of Taoyuan County, she paid close attention to soil conservation and thinks that the best way to avoid costly losses from natural disasters is to be well prepared to face such incidents.
The vice president told the visitors that one of the reasons she is promoting the "Taiwan Shirt" is to urge the people of Taiwan to pay more attention to energy saving, especially when half of the electricity consumption is used for air conditioning. Therefore, wearing appropriate clothing that matches local weather conditions might help improve energy usage.
The vice president's "Democratic Pacific Union" initiative will be established in Taipei on August 14th. Principally led by Taiwan, the "Democratic Pacific Union" is aimed at gathering the national powers of the countries around the Pacific Ocean to fight for world peace, prosperity and progress.
The vice president said that the "Democratic Pacific Union" received a great deal of positive feedback after the Central American regional conference was held in Guatemala on March 18th earlier this year and after an Asia-Pacific regional conference was later held in Tokyo on June 10th. Although the vice president was not able to attend the conferences in person, she still delivered a speech through videoconference. The vice president hopes that there will be more non-governmental organizations, as well as, non-profit civilian parties taking part in the "Democratic Pacific Union".
The visitors expressed their gratitude to the vice president and praised her for her international perspective. They also expressed their affirmation to many of the vice president's achievements and creative opinions, especially to her contributions in promoting the Democratic Pacific Union's values of democracy, peace and prosperity.