第十七台印尼經濟合作會議專輯  

附件四 潘主任委員文炎開幕致詞稿

附件四
Opening Remarks
by
Mr. Wenent Pan
Chairman, Indonesia Committee, CIECA at
The 17th Joint Economic Cooperation Conference
between Indonesia and Taiwan

Hon. Vice Minister Francis Kuo-Hsin Liang, Rep. Harmen Sembiring, Chairman Gumelar, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a great pleasure and honor for me to co-chair with Chairman Gumelar the 17th Joint Economic Cooperation Conference between Indonesia and Taiwan this morning. First of all, on behalf of Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association, I would like to thank all the guests and delegates from both sides for your participation and support,
which makes our conference today possible. I also want to thank Chairman Gumelar and our Indonesian friends for their efforts and cooperation in organizing a strong delegation to attend our annual joint conference.

Furthermore, I would like to express our appreciation to Hon. Vice Minister Liang for honoring us with their gracious presence this morning. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Rep. Sembiring and the Indonesia Economic and Trade Office to Taipei for their support and assistance. I believe that today’s conference will facilitate mutual understanding and business collaborations between our two peoples.

Over the past years, the trade and economic relations between Taiwan and Indonesia have remained solid and mutually beneficial. Indonesia was Taiwan’s 11th trading partner and the two-way trade between our two countries as of end of November last year amounted to US$ 9.5 billion, representing an increase of 25.7 percent over the previous year.

Indonesia’s economy grew steadily even on global economic crisis two years ago and the GDP growth reached a six-year high of 6.9％ in the fourth quarter of 2010. EIU raised their forecasts of Indonesia’s economic growth to 6.2％ this year. Strong domestic demands have contributed a lot to
Indonesia’s economy. Moreover, about 60 million families will advance to middle class in the next ten years. Given the emerging economy, huge domestic market, and abundant natural resources in Indonesia, I believe that there are great potential and plenty of business opportunities for expanding bilateral trade and investment cooperation between Taiwan and Indonesia.

Alter the outbreak of the global financial tsunami and worldwide economic meltdown nearly two years ago, the international economic landscape has changed a great deal. The epicenter of the world economy has shifted to Asia. Besides China’s and India’s increasingly growing economic power, ASEAN countries as a whole is widely considered a highly potential growth market. Taiwan has always maintained a strong economic partnership with ASEAN countries over the years. However, as Taiwan seeks to expand and deepen economic cooperation with mainland China through signing the ECFA, Taiwan will trade more with and invest more in China, which in turn will have adverse impacts on Taiwan’s economic partnership with ASEAN countries. The most effective way to prevent the
further erosion of trade and investment relations between Taiwan and ASEAN countries is the signing of FTA’s. Signing an FTA with Taiwan not only will give Indonesia a powerful leverage and competitive edge vis-à-vis China in attracting more trade and investment from Taiwan, but also will
promote cooperation between our two business communities to jointly explore the ever expanding China market. I earnestly hope our two governments will start preliminary consultation and feasibility study on signing an FTA between our two countries. I can assure you that the signing of FTA will be mutually beneficial to both our two countries. We have to do it the sooner the better.

From the agenda of today’s meeting, it is clear that we are focusing on 2 areas: aquaculture and solar energy industry. With mild tropical climate, over 10,000 islands and rich human resources, Indonesia is suitable for developing aquaculture industry. Furthermore, Indonesia has wonderful natural environment for applying solar power technology to generate sufficient electricity supply. Taiwan has been very successful in developing aquaculture industry and solar energy industry. Both our government and business leaders will be happy to share our success story with our Indonesian friends. Therefore, we have invited some experts to make presentations on these two fields. I believe that we could benefit considerably from their knowledge, expertise and experience. I sincerely hope that today’s meeting will strengthen trade and investment cooperation and create a win-win economic partnership between our two business communities.

Finally, I wish you all a successful and fruitful conference today. I hope our Indonesian friends will have a pleasant and memorable stay in Taiwan.

Thank you for your participation and attention.