President Ma Ying-jeou met with ranking officials from Junior Chamber International Taiwan on the morning of April 6 at the Presidential Office. In addition to commending the organization for the efforts and contributions it has made in the area of public service, the president also expressed his hopes that everyone will work together with the government in an effort to tackle new developments in economic trends.
The president commented that the Junior Chamber International is the world's largest organization of young people and is also one of the four major global public service organizations, which also include the Rotary International, the Lions Clubs International and Kiwanis International. The average age of members of the Junior Chamber International, however, is the youngest, setting it apart from the other organizations. The Junior Chamber International has 350,000 members in 91 countries throughout the world. The Junior Chamber International Taiwan was founded 57 years ago and has over 170 chapters and over 7,000 members. In addition to the young age of its members, the organization offers an avenue to empower young people and opens the door for them to engage in public service, he said.
In discussing the economy, President Ma said the world economy has been mired in a tailspin due to the financial tsunami for well over half a year. However, since the G20 nations met earlier this month, the situation has shown some signs of change. While not all the participating nations were able to reach a consensus on all of the topics discussed, they at least agreed to increase to US$700 billion to US$800 billion the amount of funds that can be tapped by the International Monetary Fund. This was a source of good news for many nations that were not present at the meeting, and stock markets throughout the world have responded enthusiastically, he said. President Ma said it is clear the international financial system will undergo change in the future. The government here is closely monitoring related developments. In the course of these changes, Taiwan's financial system will continue to remain quite stable, he said.
President Ma stressed that he is very confident about Taiwan's future. He intends to do more than just rescue the economy; more importantly, he hopes to see new global economic trends emerge. As a result, the government has selected six flagship industries for intensive development in the future, namely tourism and leisure, medical care, green energy, cultural innovation, agriculture and biotechnology. These sectors will certainly give birth to many important companies in the future, so the government will inject even more resources to foster their development, he said. The president added that the government cannot control broad economic trends, such as the financial tsunami and the contracting export markets in the United States and Europe. What the government can do, however, is to help diversify the nation's export markets and develop new markets for Taiwan products, enabling the nation to avoid from being constrained by over-reliance on the traditional European and American markets. This will enable Taiwan to maintain its competitiveness amid the broader global economic restructuring. President Ma said the government will continue to devote itself to these efforts and hopes that everyone will work together with the government to achieve these objectives.