President Ma's Remarks at the Opening Ceremony of Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center
December 16, 2009
Taipei, Chung-hua Institution for Economic Research
It is a great pleasure and an honor for me to join you this morning to mark the opening of the Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center (TASC) at the Chung-hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER).
CIER is one of the most distinguished think tanks in Taiwan, and is widely recognized for its empirical research on regional economic integration.
We are glad to have such a strong team from CIER work with the government to promote our understanding of ASEAN, an organization which is becoming ever more influential in political, economic and strategic cooperation in the East Asian region.
It is our hope that track two dialogues between the TASC and influential policy think tanks in Southeast Asia will facilitate both bilateral and multilateral functional cooperation between Taiwan and ASEAN member states.
The Asia Pacific region, which accounts for over half of the world's GDP, close to half of world trade, and 40 percent of the world's population, has been undergoing rapid economic integration in recent years, especially in East Asia.
Indeed, the economic power of, and interdependent relations in, the East Asian region have expanded considerably, and ASEAN, Japan, China (including Hong Kong), Korea and Taiwan now account for one quarter of the world's GDP. It is evident that the framework required for the formation of a regional economic bloc is already in place.
How this will develop in the future is at present unclear, although considerable discussion on this issue is well underway. For example, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has proposed an Asia Pacific Community (APC), and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has advocated an East Asian Community (EAC).
These concepts will develop in tandem with the rapidly changing interdependent relations among the members of the various regional institutions, such as ASEAN, EAS, ARF and APEC.
ASEAN has concluded free trade agreements (FTAs) with all of the Plus Six countries, and the first ASEAN-US Leaders' Meeting was held last month during President Barrack Obama's attendance at the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting (AELM) in Singapore.
ASEAN and the Plus Three countries have also agreed to increase the Chiang Mai Initiative fund to 120 billion US dollars by the end of this year, so as to help the region cope with the global financial and economic crisis.
And according to the Asian Development Bank, countries in Southeast Asia – such as Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Laos and Cambodia – can still manage to record positive GDP growth in 2009, at a time when many other economies around the world are severely affected by the financial turbulence.
Taiwan has been an APEC member economy since 1991, and we support regional free trade arrangements initiated by other APEC economies, such as a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) or a Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (TPP).
As regional integration among Asian nations gathers momentum, Taiwan cannot allow itself to fall behind, and we are confident that we can strengthen our efforts to keep abreast with international trends.
After all, Taiwan enjoys close bilateral relations with countries in Southeast Asia, particularly with respect to trade, tourism, investment and labor affairs.
Taiwan's strengths in the areas of information technology, education, agriculture and fisheries, healthcare, disaster relief management, entrepreneurship and SMEs can be a big help to countries in Southeast Asia.
The nine agreements and the MOU on financial cooperation that Taiwan has already signed with mainland China, as well as the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) that is in the making, is leading to more functional cooperation across the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan therefore looks forward to broader interactions with ASEAN members, as well as to our increased participation in regional forums.
The Asian Development Bank has made a study of regional economic integration, and as of this date, 52% of Asian countries' trade is considered intra-regional trade, compared to less than 40% in the last century. As of 2000, there were only three free trade agreements, but as of August this year, the number was up to 56. There are very few countries in the region that have not been connected by FTAs. Notably, among those which are not connected, one is North Korea, and another is Taiwan. So we think we should work harder to become part of the economic integration process. I remember attending a conference in October 2003 in Singapore, organized by the World Economic Forum. The topic of the conference was "The East Asia Economic Summit". And I remember the title of my short speech was "Why Not Ten Plus Four?" Taiwan is very eager to become part of the economic integration process so we won't be further isolated or marginalized, as Chairman Chu correctly pointed out. So I hope to see increased research and communication with ASEAN countries. We are also working to pave the way for a new era where Taiwan can more freely pursue its objective of playing more roles and participating more fully in the regional economic integration process.
Before I conclude my remarks, I would like to extend a special welcome to the group of young people from the 2009 Taiwan Study Camp for Future Leaders from Southeast Asia here today.
They are rising stars from nine ASEAN countries who have been invited to participate in a two-week study tour all over Taiwan. Please join me in welcoming these young ambassadors with a warm round of applause.
Lastly, I wish all our guests a memorable stay in Taiwan, and this international conference a great success. Thank you!