President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of July 2 with a Nicaraguan delegation led by Minister of Foreign Affairs Samuel Santos Lopez. In addition to extending a warm welcome to Taiwan, the president also thanked Nicaragua for speaking on behalf of the ROC at a variety of international venues.
In remarks, the president stated that this marks Minister Santos's fourth visit to Taiwan, after previous trips in 2007, 2011, and 2012. The president remarked that the frequent visits highlight the importance that Minister Santos places on the alliance between the two nations.
The president noted that Minister Santos, a man of enormous experience and learning, first made his mark in the financial and business community, having served as the head of the Economics Department at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua and as the mayor of Managua. He was also the chief editor of The Dawn (El Amanecer), the newspaper of the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front, and has maintained close ties with a number of foreign firms with investments in Nicaragua. He added that Minister Santos is also a close confident of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega Saavedra.
President Ma stated that Nicaragua has consistently been a staunch ally of the ROC in Central America. After resuming diplomatic relations in 1990, the two countries have actively pursued a variety of cooperation projects, including a number of initiatives President Ortega attach importance to, such as a project to eradicate hunger, the construction of a children's development center, a micro-lending initiative, a priority medical supply and national health services network project, a plan to strengthen regional productivity in order to promote small- and medium-sized agricultural ventures, an education and manpower training project, and the Dennis Martinez National Stadium Project. All of these initiatives show the concern that President Ortega has for the underprivileged in his nation, and President Ma said that he is deeply impressed by the commitment made by his counterpart in this regard.
President Ma stated that the ROC and Nicaragua maintain cooperation in information and communication technology, disaster preparedness, and national land planning. For instance, he said, the two countries are jointly running a project entitled "Application of Geographic Information Systems to Improve Environmental Sustainability in Nicaragua." Via this project, the ROC has helped Nicaragua use satellite imagery provided by the ROC to establish natural disaster and conservation area monitoring systems, thereby effectively reducing the damage to Nicaragua caused by natural disasters.
On the subject of bilateral economic and trade ties, the president pointed out that the ROC-Nicaragua Free Trade Agreement took effect five years ago and since then the volume of bilateral trade has grown significantly, reaching nearly US$100 million last year, up roughly 11.6% per year. Taiwan is Nicaragua's largest market in Asia, and its 10th largest export market in the world. At present, quite a few people in Taiwan already enjoy beef and volcanic coffee from Nicaragua, he noted, adding that these are the fruits of trade liberalization between the two countries.
President Ma also mentioned that Minister Santos on this visit to Taiwan also intends to make an in-depth visit to Jiaoxi Township in Yilan County to learn about the lovely scenery of the area as well as its rich cultural heritage.
Minister Santos was accompanied to the Presidential Office by Nicaraguan Ambassador to the ROC William Manuel Tapia Aleman 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 Simon Shen-Yeaw Ko (柯森耀).