Vice President Annette Lu attended the opening ceremony of the "8th International Conference on Multinational Enterprises" on the morning of March 14, citing Taiwan's economic-socio-political achievement.
The vice president first pointed out two indicators: economy and technology. "Taiwan is the world's 19th largest economy, whose Growth Competitiveness was ranked fifth in the year 2005," the vice president told the audience, citing Taiwan's economic achievement in accordance with the assessment reports made by the World Economic Forum.
Speaking of the technology indicator, the vice president shared her pride with the participants of the conference that Taiwan's technology achievement was ranked third in the world, surpassing China, Korea, and Japan, respectively ranked 64th, 7th, and 8th.
Besides these achievements, the vice president said that quality is as important as the merits reflected in numbers. She particularly mentioned about Taiwan's democracy and women's "soft power" in the public sphere. "Taiwanese women's participation and achievement in political and economic areas is ranked 19th in the world and first in Asia as a result of the country's economic development, political democratization, and gender liberation," the vice president said.
To conclude her remarks, the vice president reiterated her philosophy of "Co-existence and Co-prosperity" in four fields: life, generation, ecology, and being. She said, "Besides pursuing economic prosperity, we should also focus on generation and ecology of nature." "Life standard signifies not only the elevation of material life, but also fulfillment of being," the vice president concluded, giving the conference's theme an ethical touch.
At the end, the vice president praised the participants of the conference "elites of the elite," and wished the conference a great success.