President Ma Ying-jeou met on the afternoon of March 22 with Sir John Peace, chairman of the Standard Chartered Group. In addition to recognizing Standard Chartered Bank's work in assisting Taiwan to develop economic and trade relations between Taiwan and India, the president reiterated the government's continued commitment to promoting Taiwan's involvement in regional economic integration in order to boost the nation's competitiveness.
The president remarked that the ROC government has proactively promoted banking liberalization. Foreign banks enjoy both most-favored-nation status and national treatment in Taiwan. In addition, foreign banks are allowed to engage in mergers and acquisitions of local banks, he pointed out, citing the acquisition of Hsinchu International Bank by Standard Chartered Bank (Taiwan) as one example. Meanwhile, Standard Chartered has also provided assistance to the Executive Yuan's Council for Economic Planning and Development in leading a delegation to India in order to forge bilateral trade and economic relations.
The president stated that the total assets of Taiwan banks in 2000 stood at NT$33.5 trillion (approximately US$1.1 trillion), which was 3.3 times Taiwan's GDP. Last year, their total assets stood at NT$59.9 trillion (about US$2 trillion), equivalent to about 4.4 times local GDP. This indicates that Taiwan's banking system has posted considerable growth in recent years, he said, adding that Switzerland's International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in 2011 ranked Taiwan as the world's sixth most competitive economy in its World Competitiveness Yearbook, which was Taiwan's highest ranking in over a decade.
President Ma stressed that prior to 2008 cross-strait dealings in the financial services industry were virtually non-existent. Since he took office, however, the government has worked aggressively to promote cross-strait financial cooperation. This has included the signing of memorandums of understanding on financial supervisory cooperation between the two sides, as well as a phased liberalization that so far has seen six local banks establish a presence in mainland China. President Ma furthermore noted that two years ago Taiwan and mainland China signed the Cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, which is helping Taiwan to further expand its presence in financial markets throughout Asia.
The president also mentioned that the government is presently working to develop a Taiwan-centered personal financial planning platform so that local citizens can rely on domestic financial services firms to earn the best possible returns on their investments. At the same time, the nation is gradually moving towards its objective of being involved in regional economic integration, the president said, pointing out that Taiwan and Japan have signed a Taiwan-Japan Bilateral Investment Arrangement and that talks are currently being held with Singapore and New Zealand on the possibility of economic cooperation. However, negotiations between Taiwan and the United States on regional economic integration have stalled due to the issue of imports of US beef. Nonetheless, the government will continue to work to resolve this issue.
In addition to Sir John, the delegation that went to the Presidential Office in the afternoon to meet President Ma included Standard Chartered Regional Head of Consumer Banking for South East Asia Ajay Kanwal and Standard Chartered Chairperson for Greater China Katherine Tsang King-suen (曾璟璇). Financial Supervisory Commission Minister Chen Yuh-chang (陳裕璋) and National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General John C.C. Deng (鄧振中) also attended the meeting.