President Chen Shui-bian said today that the construction and completion of the Taichung Free Port Zone could never have been realized without the consistent effort of the administrative divisions of the government as he attended the ceremony to kick-start the use of the free port. He took the launch of the free port as an example to illustrate the painstaking work on reforms and said that the opportunity to reform could slip away very easily. But the President believes firmly that as long as the government sticks to the ideals of reform and solicits support from the people, it will overcome all difficulties and obstacles and bring fruitful results of the reform to the people.
President Chen encouraged all members participating in the project of building the Taichung Free Port Zone and said that pains of hard work on the construction will pass away but the fruitful results will always remain.
President Chen said that given Taichung's superior location geographically, the rise of Central Taiwan to further prosperity can be expected, if it is provided with better transportation systems that integrate land, sea and air travels. The President hoped that more enterprises could set up their headquarters in Taichung, getting involved with the operation of the Taichung Free Port Zone and helping create a new niche for the central part of Taiwan, as well as the whole island.