President Chen Shui-bian received a delegation of members of parliament from the Australian Labor Party (ALP) on September 26. In the reception, President Chen expressed his appreciation for their longstanding support for Taiwan.
President Chen said that at present, the Australia-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group has more than 120 members, which means that one out of two Australian parliamentarians belongs to this Group. Many of them are either party whips or committee chairmen.
President Chen also expressed his gratitude to Roger Price MP and his colleagues for voicing for Taiwan to join the World Health Organization, citing that the Australian House of Representatives passed a resolution in May 2006 which supported Taiwan to become an observer of the World Health Assembly.
President Chen said he was gratified over the remarkable growth of Taiwan-Australia relations in the areas of business, tourism and economic cooperation. He said that the two-way trade between them increased by 10% in 2004 and 19% in 2005, with the trade amounting to $A9 billion in 2005. With respect to tourism, the tourist arrivals from Taiwan to Australia numbered 108,000 last year, while 50,000 Australians visited Taiwan. In addition, there are 10,000 Taiwanese students studying in Australia at present. Despite the lack of diplomatic ties, Taiwan and Australia have signed as many as 15 cooperation agreements, covering trade, technology, education, and intellectual property rights in the past five years.
President Chen said that on the existing basis, he is looking forward to developing even closer relations with Australia.
Also present at the meeting were Roger Price MP, Jill Hall MP, Sharon Bird MP, Chris Hayes MP, Senator Glenn Sterle, Senator Helen Polley, Taiwan's Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Chang Siao-Yue and Deputy Secretary-General to the President Liu Shyh-fang.