President Ma Ying-jeou met with a delegation of Canadian parliamentarians on the afternoon of April 9. The president welcomed the group to Taiwan, and called for continued promotion of economic and trade cooperation between Taiwan and Canada, thereby adding further depth to the bilateral relationship.
In remarks, the president first welcomed the cross-party delegation of federal parliamentarians led by Member of Parliament John Weston on their visit to Taiwan to participate in the founding of the ROC (Taiwan)-Canada Inter-Parliamentary Exchange Association. The president also praised the parliamentarians for their contributions to friendly relations between the two countries.
With respect to trade and economic cooperation, President Ma said, over the past two years annual bilateral trade has exceeded C$6 billion. The president cited statistics indicating that last year Taiwan was Canada's fourth largest trading partner in Asia and i14th largest globally. This highlights the close trade and economic partnership between the two, he remarked.
In terms of cultural ties, the president mentioned, the two sides in 2010 signed the Taiwan-Canada Memorandum of Understanding on Youth Mobility (i.e. a working holiday agreement), followed in November of the same year by Canada's announcement that it was granting visa-free courtesies to ROC nationals. The number of ROC nationals visiting Canada in 2011 grew by 15%, he said, noting that this is also helping to boost bilateral trade and investment. President Ma also commented that Canada is the fifth most popular destination for Taiwan students seeking to study overseas.
The president furthermore stated that successive Canadian foreign ministers in 2008 and 2012 sent him congratulations after his presidential election wins, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper on each occasion dispatched a congratulatory delegation to participate in the inauguration ceremonies. This concrete support for the ROC's efforts to realize freedom and democracy highlights that the two sides share these universal values, the president commented.
In discussing people-to-people interaction, President Ma pointed to the example of his time as the executive director of an organization here connected with the Terry Fox Foundation that organizes the Terry Fox Run to raise money for cancer research. The president said he had served in this post supporting this charitable activity for over 10 years and once visited the organization's headquarters in Toronto when he served as Taipei City mayor. The president commented that his wife, First Lady Chow Mei-ching (周美青), in 2010 led a delegation to Vancouver with the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan to perform at the Cultural Olympiad 2010, held in honor of the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games . He expressed hope that bilateral cooperation and interaction in this respect will be expanded.
The delegation also included MPs Laurie Hawn, Maria Mourani, Tilly O'Neill Gordon, Anne-Marie Day, and John Carmichael. The group was escorted to the Presidential Office in the afternoon by Canadian Trade Office in Taipei Executive Director Kathleen Mackay to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting were Secretary-General to the President Timothy Chin-Tien Yang (楊進添), National Security Council Advisor Francis Yi-Hua Kan (甘逸驊), and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ting Joseph Shih (石定).