Vice President Vincent C. Siew on the afternoon of August 29 at the Presidential Building met with participants in the Asia Pacific IAFEI CFO Summit 2008. The vice president, on behalf of President Ma Ying-jeou, welcomed the representatives to the Presidential Building and expressed his best wishes for a successful conference.
Vice President Siew said that he has given considerable thought over the years to the topics of industrial transformation and upgrading in Taiwan. The role of financial management is an extremely important link in these efforts, he said. The vice president said that advanced nations are leaders in this regard, adding that Taiwan still has a considerable amount of room to improve in this work. The vice president noted that in the past he worked together with Professor Paul S. P. Hsu, who was sitting in on the meeting, on a blueprint to transform Taiwan into an Asia-Pacific operations center. He said he is keenly aware of the importance of modernizing industry and financial operations.
Vice President Siew said that at the time, the Asia-Pacific operations center was merely an idea. Little did he expect that a number of years down the road that there would be an opportunity to actually realize this concept. He said he is extremely proud to have been involved in this work. The vice president pointed out that all of his visitors are experts in the area of financial management, expressing his hopes they will offer the government a number of fresh and progressive ideas and recommendations.
Vice President Siew stressed that the new government is determined to do all it can for the people of the nation. As a result, there is an urgent need to introduce concepts and methods of advanced nations in carrying out reform here. In addition, reform must not only be tailored to meet the needs of Taiwan, but the methods of reform must be appropriate. He said he hopes that everyone will be able to provide suggestions on related topics, enabling Taiwan to transform into an Asia-Pacific operations center in the not too distant future.
The guests thanked Vice President Siew for taking time out of his busy schedule to meet with them. They also exchanged opinions with the vice president on topics such as international corporate governance practices, tax reform and methods in which the government can raise funds to carry out infrastructure projects.
The participants in the Asia Pacific IAFEI CFO Summit 2008 were led by Financial Executives Institute President Peter Hsu, and were accompanied by PHYCOS International Co., Ltd. Chairman Paul S. P. Hsu and Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission Minister Kao Su-po to the Presidential Building to meet with Vice President Siew.