On the afternoon of March 15 (Guatemala time), President Ma Ying-jeou continued his Central American trip codenamed the Forever Peaceful Project with his second day's itinerary in Guatemala. The president delivered a speech before the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), then attended a ribbon cutting ceremony at the newly opened Center for Studies in Economic Integration (CEIE), a research body under the Secretariat of Central American Economic Integration (SIECA). In the evening, President Ma hosted a banquet for the local expatriate community.
At 3:00 p.m. (Taipei time: 05:00 a.m., March 16), President Ma and his delegation proceeded to the PARLACEN to call on its President, Jose Antonio Alvarado, after which President Ma delivered a speech before the assembled parliament.
Prior to his speech, President Ma said he was honored to have been invited by PARLACEN President Alvarado to address the parliament, the highest democratic body in Central America. On behalf of the government and people of the ROC, he offered his sincerest greetings and gratitude.
Noting that the ROC has 11 diplomatic allies in Central America and the Caribbean, President Ma stated that the ROC attaches great importance to political and economic relations with its Central American diplomatic allies, and actively seeks to promote bilateral cooperation. The Conference of Foreign Ministers of the Mixed Commission for Cooperation between the Countries of the Central American Isthmus and the Republic of China has met 16 times since 1992, and approved the launch of numerous cooperation programs designed to assist Central American nations in their efforts to strengthen government organizations and boost production in the fields of agriculture, fisheries, aquaculture, and poultry, to name just a few examples. These undertakings have greatly improved the well-being of people in that region, he said. It was also in 1992 that Taiwan became the first extra-regional member of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI). This has further boosted the ROC's cooperation with the Central American nations in economic development and yielded very successful results.
President Ma stated that the PARLACEN has done everything possible since its founding to promote the process of Central American integration, and has made many contributions on that front. In 1999, after Taiwan was invited to join the PARLACEN as a permanent observer, the two sides began to engage in close interaction and exchanges, and much has been achieved through their joint promotion of parliamentary cooperation.
President Ma pointed out that since he took office in 2008, the PARLACEN on three occasions has adopted resolutions to express support for the ROC's efforts to participate in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the International Civil Aviation Organization. In 2013 the PARLACEN also issued a declaration of support for Taiwan's proposed East China Sea Peace Initiative. The government and people of the ROC will always gratefully remember these gestures of friendship, he said.
Commenting on political and economic conditions in Taiwan, President Ma stated that the ROC was founded in 1912 as the first democratic republic in Asia, and over the past 104 years has evolved into a mature democracy. This success is viewed in a very positive light by the international community. Following his election as the ROC's 12th-term president in 2008, US President George W. Bush sent Mr. Ma a congratulatory message describing Taiwan as "a beacon of democracy to Asia and the world," and following his re-election in 2012, the US White House and Department of State promptly issued congratulatory statements describing the election as an important democratic milestone, and Taiwan as one of the biggest success stories in Asia.
President Ma further stated that Taiwan smoothly carried out elections this past January 16 for the 14th-term president and vice president as well as the 9th Legislative Yuan. The elections were peaceful, with the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) victorious. Following the elections, the president-elect and vice president-elect received congratulatory messages from the PARLACEN president, the heads of state of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and nine other nations in the region, and senior political leaders and heads of state in 47 other nations, including the United States, Canada, Japan, and members of the European Union. This clearly demonstrates the deep friendship and strong trust that exist between the ROC and its diplomatic allies and other important partners.
President Ma pointed to numerous international ratings that attest to Taiwan's strong performance on many different fronts. In the world competitiveness ranking for 2015 released by the Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD), Taiwan ranked No. 11 in the world, ahead of such nations as the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, and mainland China. And Taiwan ranked third among 22 Asian economies (ahead of such nations as Australia, Singapore, and mainland China) in the August 2014 Creative Productivity Index, compiled by the UK-based Economist Intelligence Unit at the behest of the Asian Development Bank. In addition, US-based Freedom House has rated Taiwan a free country for 17 consecutive years in its Freedom in the World human rights report.
President Ma stated that although the ROC lost its seat at the United Nations (UN) in 1971 and has therefore been unable to participate in or sign UN covenants, it nevertheless remains a member of the international community, and as such continues to abide by international rules. In 2009, the year after he took office as president, he ratified two UN covenants: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). In that same year Taiwan's national legislature passed a law incorporating the provisions of these two covenants into ROC law, and the government submitted the instruments of ratification for deposit with the UN Secretariat. The UN did not accept the instruments, but that has not affected the ROC's determination to implement those two covenants.
President Ma further remarked that the ROC legislature has also passed the Enforcement Act for the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Enforcement Act of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Act to Implement the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the Act to Implement the United Nations Convention against Corruption. A total of six UN covenants have now been incorporated into ROC law, and serve as a legal basis for the ROC's administrative and judicial organs.
Over the past several decades, said the president, the ROC has been unable to take part in UN organizations or activities, the biggest obstacle being mainland China. For this reason, upon taking office as president he set about to improve Taiwan's relations with both the United States and the mainland. This, he stated, has been one of his top policy focuses.
Commenting on cross-strait relations, President Ma stressed that since taking office he has sought peaceful cross-strait relations. In doing so, he has worked within the framework of the ROC Constitution, in line with the principles of "no unification, no independence, and no use of force," and on the basis of the 1992 Consensus—whereby each side acknowledges the existence of "one China" but maintains its own interpretation of what that means. Over the past eight years, the two sides have signed 23 agreements, and the cumulative number of tourist arrivals from mainland China has exceeded 18 million. Before he took office there were no direct, regularly scheduled cross-strait flights, but now there are 120 per day. In addition, the number of mainland students studying in Taiwan has jumped from 823 before he took office to 42,000. And when he was campaigning four years ago for re-election, comprehensive information on the campaign could be found on mainland Chinese websites, "which would have been unthinkable in the past."
President Ma stated that cross-strait relations are continually improving, and based on accumulated mutual trust, he met on November 7 last year with mainland Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平) in Singapore to exchange views on how to consolidate peace in the Taiwan Strait and maintain the status quo in cross-strait relations. The two sides reached some important points of consensus during that meeting, he said.
The president pointed out that the peaceful development of cross-strait relations is emblematic of the importance of regional peace. Unlike the Korean peninsula, where the threat of war looms large and tensions are apt to flare at any time, the improvement in cross-strait relations in recent years has brought huge peace dividends, and brought a measure of flexibility that has increased Taiwan's ability to take part in international organizations and activities. Taiwan, for example, has now formally attended the World Health Assembly for seven consecutive years. In addition, even though the ROC only has 22 diplomatic allies, 161 nations and areas throughout the world now provide visa-free courtesies or landing visas to ROC nationals, up threefold since he took office.
Commenting on efforts to maintain regional peace, President Ma said that he responded to rising tensions over the Diaoyutai Islands by proposing the East China Sea Peace Initiative on August 5, 2012. Based on the principle that "although sovereignty over national territory cannot be compromised, natural resources can be shared," the initiative urged all parties to shelve controversies and resolve disputes peacefully. Then on April 10, 2013 Taiwan signed a fisheries agreement with Japan. Under that agreement Taiwan managed to "cede nothing in terms of sovereignty while making great progress in terms of fishing rights." The East China Sea Peace Initiative has been universally praised in the international community, and US-based People to People International recognized President Ma's contribution to peace by awarding him the Eisenhower Medallion in September of 2014.
Turning to the subject of the South China Sea, President Ma pointed out that in May 2015 he followed up on the success of the East China Sea Peace Initiative by proposing the South China Sea Peace Initiative to urge all parties to resolve disputes there in line with the same principles he had earlier advocated in his 2012 peace initiative. Subsequently, Taiwan and the Philippines signed the Agreement Concerning the Facilitation of Cooperation on Law Enforcement in Fisheries Matters, and this has resulted in many fewer fishing disputes than have occurred over the past several decades in the two countries' overlapping economic zones.
President Ma noted that the ROC seeks to act as a provider of humanitarian aid. Last year, for example, our country donated a combined total of more than 4,000 tons of rice to the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Honduras, and also took early action to help Panama and Paraguay alleviate flood and drought conditions in their countries. And with the Islamic State (ISIL) sowing chaos and creating a huge refugee crisis, the ROC and the Vatican last year joined hands to provide 350 units of prefabricated housing for refugees in northern Iraq. The ROC has also worked together with the Vatican and the United States to provide other types of assistance to refugees in the Middle East. In the last two years, the ROC has provided a total of over US$10 million in humanitarian aid.
President Ma stressed that in today's unpredictable and ever-changing international political environment, the ROC seeks to act as a peacemaker and provider of humanitarian aid in the international community, devoting its efforts to reducing the impact of disasters and promoting world peace. The ROC has been transformed over the years from an importer to an exporter of compassionate assistance. It acts without hesitation to provide aid to countries in need, because our nation firmly believes that "there are no winners in war, or losers in peace." Looking to the future, said the president, he hopes that the PARLACEN and the ROC can take this line of thought as the basis of a shared effort to make the international community more peaceful and prosperous.
After his speech, President Ma signed the guest book and penned a Chinese phrase: "Exemplary leaders of progressive discourse, an institutional cornerstone of democracy."
President Ma and his delegation then proceeded to the CEIE to take part in a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new center.
In remarks, the president said that it was a great honor to take part in the opening of the new center together with Arnaldo Castillo Figueroa (Minister of the Economic Development of Honduras, and President Pro Tempore of the Central American Economic Integration Subsystem), Carmen Gisela Vergara (Secretary General of SIECA), and Carlos Raul Morales Moscoso (Guatemalan Minister of Foreign Affairs).
President Ma pointed out that since taking office in May 2008, he has worked to promote a policy of "viable diplomacy" that has led to steady improvement in relations between the ROC and the Central American nations. Because the ROC has done a better job of allocating its diplomatic resources, our nation has been able to offer more active support for four key priorities of the Central American Integration System (SICA)—"economic integration," "social integration," "comprehensive disaster risk management and climate change,” and "institutional strengthening"—and our nation has also been able to share the ROC's development experiences with its Central American diplomatic allies and contribute to sustainable development in Central America on many different fronts.
President Ma mentioned that the SIECA has long promoted economic integration, and in recent years has achieved notable successes in bringing about Central American economic integration and a customs union, raising the general level of knowledge on the subject of economic integration, cultivating professional expertise in the fields of business and trade, and establishing regional harmonization of business practices. The CEIE, which was built with the cooperation of the ROC, will bear the important responsibility of training business and trade professionals for the region. In the future, said the president, the CEIE will join forces with governments and academic institutions in using a diverse range of activities and academic courses designed to train the business and trade professionals so urgently needed in the region, so as to make Central America more competitive in international business.
President Ma stated that Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Panama—all of which are ROC diplomatic allies—will benefit from the launch of CEIE operations, and he expressed confidence that the business and trade professionals trained in the future by the CEIE will be a force for economic development in Central America, will bring Central American business and practices more quickly in line with international norms, and will help create closer economic and trade ties between the ROC and the Central American region.
The president praised the SIECA for its hard work in establishing the CEIE, and expressed his wishes for a long friendship between Central America and the ROC.
In the evening, President Ma attended a welcome banquet with the expatriate community in Guatemala.
In remarks at the banquet, President Ma stated that this was his third visit to Guatemala, and while the itinerary was quite packed, the results had been quite good, and the enthusiasm and friendliness of the Guatemalan people had made a deep impression on him.
President Ma mentioned that he and PARLACEN President Alvarado were fellow alumni of Harvard University, and that the latter had said he felt they were "just like brothers." In addition, Mr. Alvarado is a senior official who has held many important positions in Guatemala. It was quite meaningful, said the president, that he was able to visit the PARLACEN earlier that day and give a speech there at Mr. Alvarado's invitation.
Noting that he will leave office as president of the ROC in two months, President Ma stated that having the opportunity to serve the nation and the people, and to carry out a series of reforms, had been the greatest honor of his life. Conditions in Taiwan, he said, are now very different from what they were eight years ago.
President Ma stressed that "eight years of reforms have made Taiwan a better place." The reform measures of the past eight years "may not seem headline-worthy," but they will be very helpful over the long run, said the president, who mentioned the following examples: the adoption of established formulas and a systematic method for setting and adjusting fuel and electricity prices; the designation of four additional special municipalities, increasing the total number from two to six; the provision of increased financial support to underprivileged groups; and expansion of the social services budget.
The president said that since taking office he has worked to build up Taiwan as a place where people can live and work in happiness. He has sought to make Taiwan more prosperous and safe, and to improve its international image. And, it turns out, Taiwan has indeed fared quite well in a wide variety of international ratings. Taiwan is on a par with any advanced nation, he stated, and after leaving office he will continue to take an interest in the nation's affairs, because he wants the ROC to continue moving forward.