President Ma Ying-jeou met on the afternoon of May 30 with former Harvard University President and former US Secretary of the Treasury Dr. Lawrence Summers. The president, on behalf of the government and people of the ROC, extended a cordial welcome to Dr. Summers on his visit to Taiwan and reiterated the government's desire to resolve the issue of US beef imports to Taiwan in order to pave the way for resumption of bilateral negotiations under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA).
In remarks, the president stated that Dr. Summers has served as a key economic and financial advisor to the White House and, along with former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, was part of what Time magazine dubbed "The Committee to Save the World." The trio successfully led the United States through the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, alleviated the possible impact of a number of American economic crises, and engineered a dramatic improvement in the economy.
President Ma stated that just after he took office four years ago, the world was hit by the global financial tsunami, the impact of which spread from the United States to the rest of the world. In that year, Taiwan's economy posted a negative growth rate of 1.91%, which was the first time such a pull-back had been seen in the 60 years since the ROC government moved to Taiwan. In order to address that crisis, the president explained that the government reduced interest rates seven times, instituted a blanket guarantee for all deposits at banks, promoted a four-year package of projects to boost domestic consumption to the tune of NT$500 billion, and issued consumption vouchers to spark spending. In addition, the government worked with the rest of society to get through the difficult times by adopting the so-called "three supports" policy, in which the government supported banks, the banks in turn supported enterprises by providing financing, and enterprises supported workers by keeping them on the payroll, he said.
The president stated that the continued efforts of the government and the public brought about economic growth of 9% in the fourth quarter of 2009 and 10.72% in 2010. Last year's growth also exceeded 4%, he pointed out. This year, the president said, Taiwan is feeling the impact of the European debt crisis, which caused overall exports in the first quarter to contract. Exports account for 70% of Taiwan's GDP, he said, but he noted that the government is carefully responding to the situation and is working on multiple fronts to boost the nation's competitiveness.
President Ma stressed that a current objective of the government is to engage in economic cooperation and integration with the nation's major trading partners. Two years ago, Taiwan and mainland China signed the Cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, he pointed out, adding that Taiwan is presently engaged in discussions with Singapore and New Zealand on economic cooperation agreements. In addition, Taiwan and Japan, its second largest trading partner, have already signed the Taiwan-Japan Bilateral Investment Arrangement, he said. The two sides continue to discuss economic cooperation in order to spark bilateral trade growth, he stated.
The president then discussed economic cooperation topics involving Taiwan and the United States, its third largest trading partner. He said that the American Institute in Taiwan earlier today formally responded that if Taiwan resolves the issue of imports of American beef, negotiations under the TIFA can be quickly resumed. President Ma explained that as Taiwan has plans to create the conditions to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership within eight years, the government will continue to strive to solve the issue of beef imports from the United States so that negotiations under the TIFA framework can be resumed.
Dr. Summers, along with Global Views Monthly & CommonWealth Publishing Co. Founder and Chairman Charles H. C. Kao (高希均) and Harvard Club of the ROC Honorary President C. V. Chen (陳長文), were accompanied to the Presidential Office by Deputy Finance Minister William Tseng (曾銘宗) to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting were National Security Council Secretary-General Hu Wei-jen (胡為真), Deputy Secretary-General to the President Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強), and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tung Kuoyu (董國猷).