| |
Document Type: Press Release
Published: November 18, 2006
Source: Government Information Office, Republic of China (Taiwan)
The Chinese Taipei Delegation to the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Hanoi released a statement today, declaring its strong affirmation and full support for APEC policies on important issues. These include the overall aim of making APEC a "dynamic community for sustainable development and prosperity" and the "Hanoi Action Plan;" seeking to utilize APEC's influence to play a positive role in resuming and bringing to a satisfactory conclusion the Doha Round of World Trade Organization talks; giving deliberation to the possibility of creating a "Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific;" promoting an excellent framework for the APEC community's sustainable development through economic and technical cooperation; and taking steps to strengthen human security.
The highlights of Chinese Taipei's statement are as follows:
We support the transformation of APEC into a
"dynamic community for sustainable development and prosperity"
and the "Hanoi Action Plan"
The theme of this year's APEC meeting is "Towards a Dynamic Community for Sustainable Development and Prosperity." We think this goal is very meaningful and is in line with APEC's overall direction of development over the years.
Meanwhile, in order to carry forward the Busan Road Map approved during last year's APEC summit, Vietnam this year has put forward the Hanoi Action Plan. We strongly affirm the wisdom of this plan and will give it our fullest support.
We support APEC's playing a positive role
in resuming the Doha Round of WTO negotiations
APEC can be a powerful force for good in the world. It spans the entire Pacific Basin, encompasses East Asia, Oceania, and the Americas, includes 40 percent of the world's population, and accounts for 48 percent of global trade and 56 percent of the global GDP. It is well worth our effort, therefore, to give serious thought to how APEC can serve as a vehicle for cross-regional economic cooperation.
The suspension of the World Trade Organization's Doha Round of negotiations in July of this year is a matter of great concern to us all. Continued stagnation of negotiations under the WTO umbrella may cause disturbances in global trade; it will be detrimental to the healthy development of the global trading system; and it will retard the progress of developing countries.
In view of this, we strongly believe that supporting the WTO in its trade liberalization efforts is a responsibility APEC cannot shirk. In this year's Economic Leaders' Meeting, we are striving to develop the capacity to wield our collective clout in global commerce to expedite the resumption of the Doha talks at the earliest possible opportunity. Chinese Taipei pledges to cooperate with its APEC partners in pursuing that goal, and we will do our utmost to contribute to the global trading system and our developing member economies.
We support the concept of a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific
APEC stands out among international organizations for its pragmatism and flexibility. For example, in the fast-evolving global economic and trade environment, APEC has in recent years made efforts to promote the ideals of high-quality, transparency, and inclusiveness in free trade agreements and regional trade agreements. Based on these principles, during this year's summit, member economies will begin to explore the possibility of creating a "Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific."
Taking the long view, we believe that the formation of an Asia-Pacific free trade area will improve our trade and investment relations with other members and complement our other long-term objectives for participation in APEC. For these reasons, we support such an initiative.
We support promoting the APEC community's sustainable development through economic and technical cooperation
A major focus of this year's Leaders' Meeting is the economic aspects of sustainable development in the Asia-Pacific region. With the fast-paced development of information and communications technology over the past two decades, the knowledge-based ICT industry has become an important driver of global economic growth. This has greatly stimulated trade, economic, and investment links between APEC's member economies. But at the same time, it has given rise to the so-called digital divide.
Inasmuch as the ICT industry is one of Chinese Taipei's core industries, and given our crucial role in the global ICT industry, we have a rich store of developmental experience in this field, which we are willing to share with our APEC partners. In recent years, we have spearheaded initiatives within APEC concerning the development of the digital economy, with the aim of making substantive contributions to sustainable development in the Asia-Pacific through economic and technical cooperation.
Our concrete contributions to economic and technical cooperation in the APEC community
In 2003, Chinese Taipei advocated the APEC Digital Opportunity Center initiative, or ADOC, in hopes of sharing our experience in narrowing the digital divide. It is worth noting that Vietnam is one of the six ADOC partner economies and is home to six-the greatest number-of the 19 ADOC promotional offices established in those economies. In 2005, Chinese Taipei launched the second phase of the ADOC program-ADOC Plus "One Village One Product"-in the endeavor to go a step further in "transforming the digital divide into digital opportunity."
This year, in order to continue exploiting ADOC's proven value, we are proposing a third-phase ADOC project wherein the scope of cooperation will expand to include the cultural sphere. We have already drawn up relevant plans and we are prepared to begin implementing the program in a short period of time. We are confident that the cooperative promotion and application of information and communications technology can serve the multiple purposes of strengthening cooperation between APEC member economies, helping to liberalize and facilitate trade and investment, and harnessing our resources to realize the ideal of sustainable development.
We support APEC initiatives to strengthen human security
In addition to the matter of deliberating the sustainable development of APEC from the perspective of economic and technical cooperation, it is imperative for us to give more thought to the importance of human security in promoting trade security in the APEC community.
It is gratifying that, in recent years, APEC has made significant strides in enhancing human security. This organization has made advances in thinking about, and committing to, preventive security measures; and it has given attention to strengthening substantive cooperation and action in the areas of anti-terrorism planning, emergency-response preparedness, public health programs, and energy security.
In keeping with the importance APEC places on human security, Chinese Taipei last year made a pledge to provide monetary support for APEC's work in promoting cooperation on human security issues. We honored that commitment in June of this year, when we contributed US$ 1 million to the APEC Support Fund. We look forward to continued cooperation with our APEC partners in the endeavor to strengthen human and trade security.
We pledge to make constructive and positive
contributions to the APEC community
We value APEC as the most important international organization in which we participate. It is our hope that through our enthusiastic engagement, our APEC partners will better understand our perspectives and benefit from our experiences. We are confident that this year's APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting will prove to be highly valuable, and we pledge to make constructive contributions toward realizing its goals.
Thanks and congratulations to Vietnam
We would also like to express our gratitude to Vietnam's government and people for hosting this year's meeting. We also congratulate Vietnam on its accession to the WTO on November 7 and look forward to cooperating with it as a fellow WTO member.
|
|