In second inaugural address, Tsai lays out plans to prepare Taiwan for a changing global economy
- President Tsai Ing-wen calls for Taipei and Beijing to ‘coexist over the long term’, but analysts say her focus is mainly on domestic agenda
- Priorities include industrial and economic development, as well as reforms for social welfare, national security and modernised governance
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen will head into her second term with a renewed focus on building the island’s economy and governance reform, analysts said, while navigating the challenges of cross-strait tensions with Beijing.
The leader of the democratic island laid out her priorities for industrial and economic development in an inaugural address on Wednesday morning, along with reforms for social welfare, national security and modernised governance.
Tsai, of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), emphasised the need to prepare Taiwan to weather global economic changes as well as the Covid-19 pandemic, for which Taipei’s response has been held up as an international model.
“Thanks to our successful control of the pandemic, so far, Taiwan is able to maintain positive economic growth,” she said. “This is rare in the world. However, we need to continue to take early action on economic relief and revitalisation, and do whatever it takes to maintain stable economic growth.”
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Tsai, Taiwan’s first female leader, was re-elected in a landslide in January, with a record number of votes seen as an endorsement of her cross-strait policy towards Beijing, which claims sovereignty over the self-ruled island.