Taipei, Sept. 9 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian pitched Monday for the establishment of regional free trade zones at the opening of an annual business conference between Taiwan and the United States.
Speaking at the opening of the 26th Joint Conference of ROC-USA & US-Taiwan Business Councils, Chen cautioned that the economic influence of the United States and Japan in the Asia-Pacific region is declining amid the opening of mainland China and the inflow of the world's capital into the mainland.
Although mainland China's rapid economic growth will contribute greatly to upgrading its people's livelihood and stimulate the economic growth of the whole region, its unstable political structure poses a threat to the long term development and stability of this part of the world, Chen said.
To put the economic structure on a solid and balanced basis, Chen said free trade zones between Taiwan and the United States, Taiwan and Japan, and Taiwan and the ASEAN states will be helpful. It will give democracy and market-oriented economic systems a bigger role in the Asia-Pacific region.
Such free trade zones had been made a top priority of his administration's agenda in an Aug. 24-25 conference of the country's leaders at Ta Shee, Taoyuan County, Chen said.
The president urged those at the conference, mainly business elite and government leaders of the two countries, to push for the establishment of such free trade zones jointly.
The conference, started Monday in Taipei, and will run until Thursday.