President Ma Ying-jeou on the morning of March 26 met with students who received scholarships under a Taiwan-Japan cultural exchange youth scholarship program. At the Presidential Office, President Ma expressed his appreciation to Japan's FujiSankei Business i. and Taiwan's Government Information Office for holding this activity. He also, on behalf of the government and people of the ROC (Taiwan), expressed a warm welcome to the scholarship recipients.
President Ma said that he has strived to promote relations between Taiwan and Japan since taking office. This year has been designated "The Year to Foster the Special Partnership between Taiwan and Japan" in order to further strengthen relations between the two countries, he said. In terms of interaction between youth of the two countries, the president said he hopes Taiwan and Japan will sign a working holiday agreement that would enable youth from each country to spend longer periods in the other. Under the agreement, youth would be able to work in the other country while they are on holiday. This would promote learning and foster greater levels of interaction, he said. This program would be extremely meaningful and the president said he is sure it will be a success.
The president noted that Taiwan and Japan are quite close to each other, as it takes only three-plus hours to reach Tokyo from here. Meanwhile, it takes only 30 minutes to reach Yonaguni Island from Taiwan. As a result, there is a high degree of interaction between the two countries. Last year, he said, over 2.5 million visits were made by people of the two countries to the other, and over 250 flights ply routes between Taiwan and Japan each week. Bilateral trade exceeds US$60 billion annually. Japan is Taiwan's third largest trading partner, while Taiwan is the fifth largest for Japan. The president expressed his desire for young people from the two countries to build friendships at a younger age and engage in cultural exchanges, thereby promoting mutual understanding. President Ma said that we will continue efforts to establish a representative office in Hokkaido and a cultural center in Tokyo. He also said that many Japanese parliamentarians have expressed their hopes that items from the National Palace Museum could be displayed in Japan. The president said that related persons are looking at the feasibility of this, and that he is confident that even more cultural exchange activities will be seen between the two countries in the not too distant future.
President Ma furthermore said that construction of a fourth runway at Tokyo's Haneda Airport will be completed next year and he hopes that after that four daily roundtrip charter flights will be commenced between Haneda Airport and Taipei's Songshan Airport. Since both Haneda and Songshan are inner city airports, taking flights between the two airports could save travelers two hours in transit time, meaning four hours on a roundtrip basis. This would be very economical and is a plan on which both sides have reached a consensus. It is expected that flights will begin between the two airports next year. President Ma also said that the government is planning to establish a memorial park for Yoichi Hatta, the primary designer of the Jianan Canal and the Wushantou Reservoir, at his former residence. In the future when Japanese visit Taiwan, they will be able to get a further understanding of the enormous contribution Mr. Hatta made to Taiwan's hydro-engineering projects here.
Lastly, in addition to wishing all the students a wonderful time while here, the president encouraged them to learn more about Taiwan. He said that in the future they will serve as bridges for communication and development of relations between the two countries.