The issue of Taiwan's participation in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as a dialogue partner has been in the news lately, after ROC Vice President Vincent Siew spoke of the importance of Taiwan's bid for participation in the group twice in a week.
During an Oct. 12 forum in Taipei, Siew said the nation must seek involvement in ASEAN under its charter with a pragmatic attitude, citing regional integration as a global trend. Taiwan's chief economic architect also voiced concern that should the country's exclusion from the ASEAN Free Trade Area continue, the island would be at a severe disadvantage.
Siew's comments on ASEAN are a sharp reminder of the cruel political and economic reality Taiwan faces these days. As the ASEAN Free Trade Area is poised to become the world's largest single common market with 3 billion people and US$9 trillion in value, the fact that Taiwan cannot have a presence there is bound to hurt.
Just how bad would this be? According to an estimate by the Taipei-based Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, if ASEAN plus six--including Australia, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and mainland China--materializes, Taiwan's gross national product could suffer a loss of US$5.07 billion per year.
Even though Beijing remains the biggest obstacle to Taiwan's participation in ASEAN, this is not to say that Taiwan stands no chance of turning things in its favor. ROC government statistics reveal that in 2007, Taiwan's trade volume with ASEAN countries totaled US$60 billion, making the area the island's third largest trading partner, behind only mainland China and Japan. Meanwhile, Taiwan now ranks as the third largest foreign investor in Cambodia and Thailand, and the largest in Vietnam.
To minimize the impact of Taiwan remaining outside of ASEAN, the ROC government has been preparing for the worst by pursuing bilateral talks with individual ASEAN members under the framework of the World Trade Organization and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
The vice president's remarks signify the government has taken note of the immediacy of this situation,
and is expected to follow with further actions. Proposals such as establishing a think tank to advise on ASEAN-related policies and encouraging parliamentary exchanges and dialogue between policy making groups, as well as setting up offices in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar are all in the pipeline.
Taiwan is no stranger to overcoming political obstacles and understands that pragmatism is the way to ensure its survival and prosperity. ASEAN should recognize this strength and reward that with partnership.
sorry! because my english叫me do!!=.=
