Vice President Annette Lu this morning attends the opening ceremony of a disaster prevention and mitigation center established by the Democratic Pacific Union (DPU) and delivered a speech at the ceremony.
The DPU, founded on August 14 this year, has set the sustainable development of the Pacific region as goal of the member countries. Vice President Lu, who served as chairperson of the assembly, said that what Taiwan can share as a member is not money, but the precious experiences it has accrued in many fronts. The Vice President cited the country's achievement in technology, saying that satellite photos taken by the Formosat-2 and significant research findings of Taiwan's research institutes can all be shared with the rest of the world. The Vice President expressed her appreciation for President Chen Shui-bian's joining in the celebration event, calling the President's attention to the development of the DPU her honor. Vice President Lu meanwhile extended her gratitude toward the National Applied Research Laboratories for support and assistance granted to the DPU disaster prevention and mitigation center so the center can successfully begin operating on the first anniversary of the South Asia tsunami disasters. The Vice President meanwhile urged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to join effort in exchanging Taiwan's experiences in disaster prevention with other countries.
Vice President Lu said that her vision of a world that "reveres heaven, treasures the earth and loves the mankind" needs to be shared and exercised by all, and that people must cherish the planet they live on and promote prosperity of the world as she believed it to be the common goal of all human beings.