President Chen Shui-bian received this morning Chairman Mohamad Hidayat of Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, extending his welcome to the delegation and expressing his hope that Taiwan-Indonesia economic dialogues at the ministerial level could resume as soon as possible.
President Chen expressed his most sincere gratitude toward the Indonesian government for welcoming his stay in Bali en rout back to Taiwan when the island was hit by Typhoon Longwang in September. He also thanked Chairman Agum Gumelar of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Taiwan office, for visiting Taiwan, which symbolized a major step forward in the friendship between the two countries.
Economic and business cooperation between Taiwan and Indonesia has seen fruitful results, said President Chen, with bilateral trade last year amounting to US$6 billion, up 35 percent compared to the previous year. Trade volume in the first half of this year alone has reached US$3.3 billion, a 19 percent increase compared to the same period last year. The president said some 1,000 cases of Taiwanese projects, worth over US$13.1 billion, are currently undertaken in Indonesia. Taiwan is now the fifth largest investor in Indonesia, and the president believed that still more Taiwanese business would invest in the country as long as Indonesia's investment environment continues to improve.
The president mentioned the hope to resume economic ministerial dialogues between Taiwan and Indonesia, as well as meetings in other areas, hopefully also in the ministerial level. Conversation between economic ministers of both countries could boost business cooperation effectively. Despite the lack of diplomatic ties, intense communications have long been existed between the two countries. Taiwan has also lent a helping hand to Indonesia and has joined in the relief efforts in the aftermath of the tsunami attacks last December.
President Chen pointed out the international concern of the disease prevention of bird flue, saying Taiwan is hoping to join effort with Indonesia in preventing the disease as work on medical care and disease prevention should be cross-border. And the impact of bird flue and SARS on people's health worldwide knows no boundary. To effectively guard against those epidemics, all people in the world should work closely and unite together. Taiwan hopes to join the World Health Organization (WHO) so it would not become a loophole of world disease prevention. And Taiwan's seeking to become member of the WHO is not about politics, nor is it about sovereignty. It is about hygiene, disease prevention and health. Although the Indonesian government has not been able to support Taiwan on this issue like the U.S. and Japan have, the objection by the Indonesian health department to Taiwan's bid to join the WHO has been regretful.
In closing, the president thanked the delegation of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry again for the visit to Taiwan, and voiced his hope that Taiwan and Indonesia could step up their economic cooperation while setting aside political issues.