President Ma Ying-jeou met with Philippine Finance Secretary Margarito Teves on the afternoon of March 25 at the Presidential Office. The president extended a warm welcome to Secretary Teves.
President Ma praised Secretary Teves as an outstanding and experienced member of the Philippine Cabinet. Recently, he was singled out by The Banker, a London-based international finance magazine, as Asia's best finance minister, which highlights the reputation he maintains internationally.
The president commented that the Philippines is Taiwan's closest neighboring nation and the two countries maintain close trade, investment and people-to-people ties. Bilateral trade stands at over US$7 billion a year. Taiwan is the sixth largest trading partner of the Philippines, while the Philippines is Taiwan's 14th largest trading partner. In addition, over 90,000 Philippine nationals presently work here, providing an enormous economic and social contribution to Taiwan. Over one million ethnic Chinese live in the Philippines, the vast majority of whom are originally from Southeastern China and are able to speak Minnanese. The ethnic Chinese community in the Philippines has deep ties with Taiwan, he said. President Ma expressed his hopes that close cooperation between Taiwan and the Manila Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei will serve as the starting point from which to develop broader relations between the two countries. He also hopes that the economic cooperation conference between Taiwan and the Philippines will be held on a regular basis and that relations will continue to be developed in the areas of aviation, tourism and investment.
Secretary Teves expressed his appreciation to President Ma for taking time out of his busy schedule to meet with him. He also asked President Ma about issues related to Taiwan's issuance of spending vouchers and moves to improve relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.