TUESDAY 30TH MARCH 2010

In a historic event, the President of the Republic of China on Taiwan, His Excellency Ma Ying-Jeou, visited the National Parliament of Solomon Islands and addressed the House on Thursday 25th March 2010 as part of the President’s 3 day visit to Solomon Islands. This was following a resolution of the House on the day before, on a motion by the Prime Minister, Hon. Dr. Derek Sikua, to invite President Ma to make an address to Parliament. That resolution also allowed the President, five Congressmen from the Taiwan Government, Taiwan Ambassador to Solomon Islands and a translator to be on the floor of Parliament.

The Speaker of Parliament, the Rt. Hon. Sir Peter Kenilorea, received the Taiwanese delegation and formally invited President Ma to make his address. In making that invitation on behalf of Parliament, Sir Kenilorea was very appreciative of the landmark visit and recalled inviting President Ma’s predecessor on a similar visit in 2005. The Speaker noted the strong ties between Taiwan and Solomon Islands over the past 27 years and the many development initiatives that Taiwan has given to the people of Solomon Islands. Sir Peter was especially pleased with direct assistance to Parliament, in particular the new office complex for parliamentarians that is funded by Taiwan and is currently being constructed. The construction was officially launched earlier in February this year in a ground breaking ceremony which was attended by the Foreign Affairs Minister of the Taiwan Government.

On being invited to make his address to Parliament, President Ma expressed sincere gratitude for the hospitality he and his delegation were receiving on their trip and was equally pleased with the strong link between the two countries, which he believed was steadily growing. President Ma attributed such strong ties to the fact that two countries share common values of democracy, freedom and peace. On behalf of the Taiwan Government, His Excellency thanked the Government and people of Solomon Islands for their support and kind concern in the aftermath of Typhoon Morakat which devastated Southern Taiwan in August last year. He was particularly moved by the story of a chief from Isabel who travelled a long distance to donate money on behalf of his community towards the typhoon victims.

Elaborating on the diplomatic ties between the two nations, His Excellency acknowledged Solomon Islands’ support to Taiwan in securing recognition amongst the international community. The President believed that with the support of allies like Solomon Islands, Taiwan has recently experienced increased recognition worldwide, including from the WHO. President Ma also attributed recent improvements in the peace process between Taiwan and mainland China to the same allies.

For such unwavering support, the President was very thankful towards Solomon Islands and was very confident that the relationship between the two nations will continue to grow. One area which the President felt had a lot of potential for Taiwan’s assistance was in alternative energy source. He was of the view that Taiwan’s recent assistance through provision of solar units has been successful. He envisaged that with further cooperation, this area could be explored further to look into the possibility of larger scale solar power centres as well as the importing of successful models tailor made for Solomon Islands to Taiwan’s other Pacific allies. While being very positive about Taiwan’s future assistance to this nation, however, President Ma cautioned that his administration has, since 2008, changed the approach to Taiwan’s foreign aid policy to accommodate universally accepted principles of legitimacy, accountability and implementation. He advised Parliament that further aid from his country will be given in this context.

Following His Excellency’s address, President Ma presented a plague to Parliament, which was received on the House’s behalf by the Speaker, to commemorate the new office complex for parliamentarians. This plague will be placed in front of the complex when it is completed. The project is expected to take at the most two years.

The ceremony ended with a short ‘meet and greet session’ which saw the President going around the Chamber to meet most of the parliamentarians. Amongst those who witnessed the 45 minutes program were the Prime Minister, Ministers of the Crown, Leader of Opposition, Leader of the Independent Group, other Members of Parliament, Congressmen from the Government of Taiwan, the Ambassador of Taiwan to Solomon Islands and his wife, senior public officials and a huge contingent of media reporters both local and international, mostly from Taiwan.