President Ma Ying-jeou met with a delegation from the Electronic Book Publishers Association of Japan at the Presidential Office on the morning of July 6. The president, on behalf of the government and people of the ROC, extended a warm welcome to the delegation on their visit to Taiwan and exchanged views with the visitors regarding the state of electronic book publishing in Taiwan and Japan and the possibility of cooperation between publishers in the two countries.
President Ma noted that the work of electronic book publishing is to utilize digital technology to transform games, animation, movies, and other traditional cultural products into electronic form. He said that this industry can team up with other industries to create enormous business opportunities. Taiwan, the president said, has long been extremely interested in this field, so he has high hopes for cooperation between both countries in this regard. President Ma said Taiwan has long been a major base for information communication technology, and last year the government included the cultural and creative sector as one of Taiwan's six major emerging industries, with plans being formulated for its active promotion. In addition, the recent signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) between Taiwan and mainland China marks a new milestone in the normalization of cross-strait trade and economic relations. The ECFA will also provide an opportunity for increased cooperation between Taiwan and Japan in the future, enabling the two sides to work together in developing markets in mainland China and thereby generating new business opportunities.
The president said that in addition to the six major emerging industries, the Executive Yuan has also singled out electric vehicles, green buildings, cloud computing, and commercialization of patents and trademarks as future areas for development. All of these industries and initiatives offer the potential for cooperation with the electronic book publishing sector, he said. President Ma stressed that the content of the ECFA includes liberalization of 11 service sectors and protection of intellectual property rights. This not only carries important significance for the electronic book sector, but will also be a major aid in developing the mainland market. Even though the most recent round of negotiations between Taiwan and mainland China did not yield an agreement on electronic books, a new round of talks will be held six months after the ECFA takes effect, and will cover trade in goods and services. The electronic book industry can be included as a topic for discussions at that time, he said.
President Ma furthermore said that when he served as Taipei City mayor he sought to build up Taipei as a global center for Chinese-language publishing. In 2007, for instance, Taiwan published 45,000 titles, while mainland China published 135,000 titles. While the mainland published three times the number of titles that Taiwan did, the president pointed out that the population of mainland China is some 57 times larger than Taiwan's, which means that Taiwan's publishing industry is actually 19 times more active than mainland China's. He said that if we can make the best of leveraging our cultural and creative strengths, enormous opportunities will exist for cross-strait cooperation.
While on the topic of Taiwan's cultural and creative industries, the president mentioned the film industry as a case in point. The results of the most recent round of ECFA negotiations, he said, permit up to 10 films from mainland China to be released here each year, while Taiwan faces no restrictions on the number of films it can release in mainland China. This is fantastic news for Taiwan's film industry, he said, adding that the electronic book industry and the film industry are closely related. He said he is confident that if the two industries are able to work together in the future and in conjunction with other cultural-related sectors, there will be significant room for development. Lastly, the president expressed his hopes that the guests will take advantage of this trip to Taiwan to meet with counterparts and related agencies and organizations here, thereby paving the way for closer contact and the possibility for cooperation and interaction between the two sides in the future.
The delegation from the Electronic Book Publishers Association of Japan was accompanied to the Presidential Office in the morning by Minister without Portfolio Yiin Chii-ming to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting was National Security Council Advisor Lee Chia-chin.