Asuncion, May 31 (CNA) Republic of China President Chen Shui-bian said Thursday that Beijing's ignorance of the reality of the existence of the ROC since 1911 is the basic reason for tension between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
President Chen, who is now in Paraguay for a three-day state visit, made the remarks while delivering a speech at the Paraguayan Congress.
Chen said that Paraguay is the most important diplomatic ally of the ROC in southern America and both countries share many things in common, which he said would lay the foundation for further cementing bilateral ties.
President Chen went on to say that Taiwan, with only limited natural resources, had a per capita gross national product (GNP) of about US$100 in 1949. But the government had adopted a series of measures to improve its economy since then, including land reforms, developing agriculture and industries, as well as equal distribution of wealth.
As a result of the joint efforts of the government and people, Taiwan has emerged as an industrialized countries, with a per capita GNP of US$14,000, ranking the world's 25th highest; a GNP of US$314 billion, the world's 17th largest; a foreign exchange reserve of over US$90 billion, the world's third largest; and a two-way trade volume of more than US$280 million, which surpasses the total of the Southern Common Market member countries.
Saying that Taiwan registered a 6.5 percent economic growth last year, Chen said that under the influence of the global economic slowdown, Taiwan's economic growth is expected to reduce to only 5 percent this year.
However, Chen added that the ROC government is now launching various measures aimed to weather the difficult time ahead and to establish Taiwan into a "green Silicon Valley."
President said that Taiwan, which had been a recipient of international assistance during the process of its economic development, is now more than willing to shoulder its responsibility as a member of the international community by sharing with friendly countries its "economic miracle" experience.
He pointed out that the ROC and Paraguay, since the establishment of their diplomatic relations in 1957, have been maintaining very a close relationship with the signings of many cooperative accords. Citing as an example, Chen said that the ROC has stationed a technical mission in Paraguay since 1974 to provide local people with expertise and assistance in agriculture.
Furthermore, Chen noted that the ROC-Paraguayan Economic Cooperation Meeting since its first opening in 1987, has been held annually and made a great contribution to the promotion of bilateral trade and investment and industrial and agricultural cooperation.
Chen expressed his deep gratitude to Paraguay for his firm support of Taiwan in the international community. "The ROC government and people are pound of having such a friend like Paraguay," Chen said.
He expressed the hope that the ROC and Paraguay, taking advantage of their geographical location in the Far East area and as a member of the Southern Common Market, respectively, will further develop their mutually beneficial and complementary relations as "progressive partners."
Turning to relations between Taiwan and the mainland, Chen said that he has several times extended olive branches to the other side of the strait since his inaugural one year ago.
At his year-end speech, Chen added, he again expressed his good-will to Beijing by proposing the integration of two sides, to begin with trade, economic and cultural integration and gradually find a mechanism for final political integration. "To my regret, Beijing has been turning a deaf ear to my good-will and continued to squeeze the ROC's international space by aggressively selling its 'one country, two systems, approach," Chen said, adding that this is the root cause of the cross-strait tension.