President Ma Ying-jeou on the morning of October 18 met with a delegation from the International University Sports Federation (FISU) that is on a visit to Taiwan to review a bid to host the 2017 Summer Universiade. The president stressed that Taiwan already has experience arranging and hosting many international activities and has won praise for the events it has held. The president expressed his hope that the nation will be granted the right to host the 2017 Summer Universiade.
The president remarked that the ROC has consistently emphasized the development of athletics. In addition to continuing to participate in international competitions, Taiwan is actively seeking to host international athletic events. President Ma acknowledged that in the past decades political issues and confrontation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait created various barriers for the nation to participate in international sports activities. Over the past three-plus years, however, his administration has actively sought to improve cross-strait relations, and the aforementioned issues have been resolved to a degree. Besides rays of peace having emerged in the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan has had greater opportunities to hold large-scale international athletic activities, he said. For instance, Kaohsiung held the World Games in 2009 and Taipei in the same year held the Deaflympics. The International World Games Association and the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf both praised the efforts of the two cities in holding the respective events, lauding them as the best ever, he commented.
President Ma furthermore stated that he proclaimed both of these two international athletic competitions open in his capacity as the President of the ROC. Even so, delegations from mainland China participated in the events, which he said points to reconciliation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. Besides expanding space for the ROC to participate in and hold global athletic competitions, this also represents mutual goodwill and sincerity between Taiwan and mainland China, he added.
President Ma also explained to the guests the various international activities that Taiwan has held in the past, such as World Cup Baseball Tournament in 2001, the International Children's Games in 2002, the FIFA Futsal World Championship in 2004 and the World University Badminton Championship in 2010. Meanwhile, next year Taipei will hold the FISU Forum, he said, commenting that all of this points to Taiwan's extensive experience in holding international athletic activities. The president also pointed out that Taipei in 2010 held the International Flora Expo, which was also proclaimed the best ever by the International Association of Horticultural Producers that sponsors the exposition. This marked yet another successful international event held by Taiwan outside of the athletic arena, he said.
President Ma stated that the FISU will convene a meeting of its executive committee in Brussels, Belgium on November 29 to decide the host city for the 2017 Universiade. A total of 23 committee members cast votes in deciding the cities that would host the events from 2011 to 2015. Besides Chen Tai-cheng (陳太正), an executive committee member from Taiwan, we will also need to secure support from over half of the committee's members to reach our goal, the president stated. President Ma expressed his confidence that the efforts made by Taipei City Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) will enable the committee members now visiting Taipei to better understand Taipei's comprehensive infrastructure from an objective standpoint, and to subjectively sense the strong desire by Taipei to hold the event.
President Ma said that the ROC desires to hold the 2017 Summer Universiade and in his capacity as President of the ROC he guarantees that the nation will make every effort possible to achieve its goal and then successfully hold the event.
The delegation was accompanied to the Presidential Office by Taipei Mayor Hau and Political Deputy Minister of Education Lin Tsong-ming (林聰明)to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting was National Security Council Advisor Tung Kuo-yu (董國猷).