President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of November 11 with the ROC delegation that will attend the 2015 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Week. The president said he hopes the delegation will once again express Taiwan's determination to promote economic and trade liberalization and participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
In remarks, President Ma thanked the delegation members for their tireless efforts and for taking on the important responsibilities of promoting economic and trade development and speaking up for Taiwan in the international community. The president made a point to note that former Vice President Vincent C. Siew (蕭萬長) will attend the APEC meetings for the seventh time, so he is quite familiar with how APEC operates, as well as the bilateral economic and trade relationships between the ROC and other APEC member economies, making him the best choice to represent the ROC at this event, the president said.
President Ma stated that former Vice President Siew last year attended the 22nd APEC Economic Leaders Meeting (AELM) in Beijing, meeting with and holding bilateral discussions with the leaders or leaders' representatives from the US, mainland China, and Japan, the world's three major economies. This helped raise Taiwan's visibility in APEC and highlighted the positive image of Taiwan's active participation in international activities. The president expressed hope that former Vice President Siew this year will again explain Taiwan's viewpoint and further strengthen cooperation between Taiwan and other economies.
President Ma remarked that the theme of this year's APEC meetings is "Building Inclusive Economies, Building a Better World," with four stated priorities: "Enhancing the Regional Economic Integration Agenda," "Fostering Small and Medium Enterprises' Participation in Regional and Global Markets," "Investing in Human Capital Development," and "Building Sustainable and Resilient Communities." To highlight its support for the main themes at this year's APEC meetings, the ROC donated US$700,000 to APEC during the Third Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM3) this past September. In addition, the ROC and other APEC economies are actively cooperating to carry out nine initiatives and projects under the APEC framework including pharmaceutical research & development, renewable energy, creation of low-carbon communities, big data for disaster prevention systems, and women's innovation-oriented economic development. The ROC has also helped host 29 APEC conferences and activities on topics such as maximizing human resources, enhancing disaster prevention capabilities, food additive management, and international human resource mobility and the protection of their rights and interests. In the future, the government will continue to seek opportunities to hold high-level APEC conferences or jointly host ministerial-level meetings, the president said.
President Ma commented that this year's APEC host nation, the Philippines, has introduced the APEC Services Cooperation Framework initiative and has proposed the establishment of an APEC Virtual Knowledge Center on Services and the Boracay Action Agenda to Globalize MSMEs. All of these projects will assist small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Asia-Pacific to overcome various problems they face in expanding their international markets. The president went on to say that these measures have the same objectives—internationalization and the adoption of high technology in the service industry—as the ROC government's Three Industries, Four Reforms industrial policy. President Ma hopes the upcoming meetings will help Taiwan's SMEs deploy internationally and get the ROC even more deeply involved in international economics and trade.
The president then mentioned the government's success in promoting economic and trade liberalization. Examples include the Cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement with mainland China in 2010 and the Taiwan-Japan Bilateral Investment Arrangement in 2011. Negotiations with the US under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement were also resumed in 2013. That same year, the ROC also signed the ANZTEC economic cooperation agreement with New Zealand, and the ASTEP economic partnership agreement with Singapore. These examples all show the international community the ROC government's determination to promote trade liberalization, he said.
The president then stated that Taiwan's annual trade with the 12 TPP members is about US$200 billion, and US$325 billion with the 16 RCEP members. So these two regional economic blocs absorb 35% and 57% of Taiwan's exports, respectively. The first round of TPP negotiations were completed on October 5 of this year and the ROC is actively seeking to participate in Round 2. Turning to the RCEP, President Ma said that since it might be opened to non-ASEAN members, the ROC government will also continue to make every effort to join this regional economic integration mechanism.
The president mentioned that former Vice President Siew has long been concerned about regional economic integration issues, and presently serves as the convener of a promotion committee (comprised of members from the private sector, including figures from the opposition parties and representatives of the business community), whose mission is to push for Taiwan's admission to the TPP and the RCEP. President Ma then expressed hope that the ROC delegation members will again convey our determination to take part in these two trade blocs and actively negotiate with the relevant countries.
Former Vice President Siew then took the floor, stating that this marks the second time the Philippines has hosted the APEC meetings, having hosted them for the first time 19 years ago. The Philippine economy in recent years has been quite strong, and substantive relations between the ROC and the Philippines have progressed considerably. He hopes to take advantage of his attendance at the meetings to enhance the bilateral economic and trade relationship.
Former Vice President Siew then mentioned that this year, APEC issued a special invitation to the Pacific Alliance. As Peru, the pro tempore president of the Pacific Alliance this year, will also hold the AELM next year, the ROC delegation will use this opportunity to enhance mutual relations by holding discussions with Pacific Alliance member states, explaining the current state of the ROC's economic development, and expressing the importance the ROC places on Latin America. The former vice president also said the delegation will take advantage of the CEO Summit by having the ROC representative to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) share Taiwan's experience in innovation and entrepreneurship, thereby enhancing the international community's understanding of Taiwan.
Former Vice President Siew stressed that the ROC delegation will make every effort to hold bilateral talks with all of Taiwan's major economic and trading partners so as to bolster these relationships. As for efforts to seek participation in the TPP and the RCEP, the former vice president said that last year Taiwan became a core member of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific's joint strategy research group, and the ROC delegation will work to link these two issues. In short, he stated that the delegation will do its utmost and harness its energy to create a better environment and conditions for the ROC to participate in the TPP and the RCEP in the future.
In addition to former Vice President Siew, the ROC delegation attending the 2015 APEC meetings includes advisors Woody Tyzz-jiun Duh (杜紫軍), John C. C. Deng (鄧振中), Andrew L.Y. Hsia (夏立言), Liu Da-Nien (劉大年), Chan Hou-Sheng (詹火生), Jonney Shih (施崇棠), and Chan Chi-shean (詹啓賢). Business community representatives in the delegation include Cathay Financial Holdings Chairman Hong-Tu Tsai (蔡宏圖), MiTAC-SYNNEX Group Chairman Matthew F.C. Miao (苗豐強), and HTC and VIA Technologies Chairwoman Cher Wang (王雪紅).