President Ma Ying-jeou met with President of Pennsylvania State University Mr. Graham Spanier and Mrs. Spanier at the Presidential Office on the afternoon of March 10. Mr. Spanier is leading a group of musical theater students from his university on a tour throughout Asia. The president extended a warm welcome to the guests on their visit to Taiwan.
President Ma said Taiwan students have long headed to the United States to further their studies, to the extent that some here in the past were concerned that this would lead to a brain drain. However, in recent years there has been a growing trend among students who went overseas to come back to Taiwan to contribute here what they have learned while abroad. The president pointed out that since the 1970s when the Taiwan economy began to take off, many students who went overseas to study have opted to return here to establish companies, many of which are in the high-tech industry. He said that Taiwan has benefited from the outstanding level of higher education offered in the United States, adding that students trained in the United States have played a vital role in enabling Taiwan to become a force in the world economy.
President Ma furthermore commented that both Taiwan and the United States are suffering from economic downturns caused by the financial crisis. He said he understands that President Obama is facing unprecedented challenges, but remains confident that President Obama will lead the United States out of this crisis. The president stressed that the United States is an important trading partner for Taiwan. Only if the United States is able to regain economic momentum will Taiwan be able to gradually emerge from the financial crisis.
President Ma added that while Taiwan is being affected by the financial crisis, the nation has a high level of foreign exchange reserves and low foreign debt. The national savings rate is 29%, and nine percentage points of that is considered excess savings that could be used to spend. As a result, Taiwan's economic fundamentals are not bad. He said the government is making every effort to plan and enact appropriate economic stimulus measures, and that he hopes the situation will begin to gradually improve in the second half of this year. President Ma also explained that the government in January of this year issued spending vouchers to the public to foster consumption and stimulate economic growth. He said that the timing of the program was perfect, as the vouchers were issued prior to the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday. The initiative was quite effective and provided a boost to economic growth, he said.
President Ma said he believes that education is the primary force contributing to change within society. Presently, nearly 25,000 people from Taiwan are studying in the United States. Educational exchanges help to boost mutual understanding, he said. Over the past half century, it has been a tradition here for students to study in the United States, and the president said he hopes that educational interaction will continue in the future.
Mr. Spanier expressed his appreciation to President Ma for taking time out of his busy schedule to meet with him, and he also praised President Ma's emphasis on education. Mr. Spanier said that while many students from Taiwan have gone to Penn State for graduate studies, he hopes to see more undergraduate students from Taiwan study at Penn State in the future, thereby creating even closer educational ties between both sides.