Taiwan here and now

As the high speed elevator zoomed to the top floor of the world’s tallest building, it felt like we were on an airplane during takeoff: we reached the 101st floor of the world’s tallest building in just 20 seconds.

Taipei 101 is topped by a spire, and the base of the building has a huge shopping mall, which extends from the basement up to the fourth floor. The 45-meter tall atrium on the fourth floor contains a plaza with simulated streets and surroundings.

Taipei 101, a joint venture between the Taipei city government and the private sector, is located in the city’s fashionable East Downtown, a former military camp which the government developed into a new commercial district 20 years ago. West Downtown is the old commercial center.

East Downtown is bigger and more developed than Makati’s central business district and Fort Bonifacio Global City put together, with streets and sidewalks broader and more organized. On the sidewalks are parking spaces for bicycles and scooters, which proliferate in the streets of Taipei.

Taipei is abuzz with construction. Streets are being dug up for subways and platforms were being erected for a metro rail to connect the entire city in a network of underground and above ground rail systems.

It also felt like an airplane when we took the high-speed train from Banciao, a 30-minute drive from Taipei, to Zuoying station before making a 15-minute drive to Kaohsiung, the southern-most city of Taiwan. The trip that would have lasted half a day by car or bus took all of two hours, through tunnels bored into mountains that previously hindered travel from north to south of the island.

The Banciao and Zuoying stations are as huge as department stores, bigger than the arrival and departure areas of our international airport combined. We went around the stations on walkacalators or moving sidewalks.

Standard fare from Taipei to Zuoying is NT$1,450 in a standard car and NT$2,440 in a business car, equivalent to the airfare between those points. During the initial two-week run in late January, a discounted NT$750 was collected for the trip from Banciao to Zuoying in a standard car. Kaohsiung, the second largest city in Taiwan, is an economic hub, with Kaohsiung Port acting as base of both deep sea fishing and heavy construction. There are many tourist harbors along the port which offer a beautiful ocean view with the ships rolling in, and from which visitors can take a tourist train or ferry.

Since 2000, ports near the city have been gradually removed to allow people greater and easier access to the water. The Ocean Viewing Platform next to the entrance to Kaohsiung Port used to be a banana storage, but it is now the best spot to view the magnificent ships in the harbor. A two-story, Baroque-style brick building next to Kaohsiung Port is the Historical Museum. Built in 1914, its original wooden windows have been maintained, along with the ceiling, pillars and doors.

We were in Taipei upon invitation of the Taiwan Government Information Office and the Taiwan Economic Cultural Office (TECO) in Manila to attend a conference on new democracies sponsored by the Democracy Pacific Union. At the conference, Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian reiterated his November 2004 declaration that his country wants to join the United Nations under the name "Taiwan." The following day, the announcement was splashed on the front pages of all newspapers.

Chen said when Taiwan amended its Constitution seven times in the past 15 years, these were only "partial revisions or slight adjustments to old laws" left by an autocratic regime.

"It is time for Taiwan to create a new Constitution that is well-timed, properly designed and usable for the country," he said. "Taiwan can’t be called a normal, complete and progressive new democracy unless it has a new Constitution."

On a visit to Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we asked Sia-yue Chang, vice minister at the ministry, about the plans to revise the country’s Constitution. Sia said the present Constitution does not reflect the will of the people of Taiwan. "It was created by the Mainland Chinese generation," she said about the document drafted in the mainland 50 years ago.

For his part, Chen-yuan Tung, vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council in the Executive Yuan or Cabinet, said Taiwan does not need to formally declare its independence. "It is already independent for all intents and purposes," he asserted. In fact, the island nation of 23 million separated from the mainland in 1949.

Thomas M.F. Yeh, Council for Economic Planning and Development vice chairman, told us in an interview that Taiwanese money is being invested in China through the Virgin Islands. "(There was) $6.4 billion in cross-straits (between Taiwan and China) trade in 2005," he said. "Taiwan’s real investments in China totaled about $100 billion to $150 billion in 2006."

The Council for Economic Planning and Development serves as a financial and economic advisor to the Executive Yuan or Cabinet. To facilitate the Cabinet’s decision-making, the Council integrates the views of the different government agencies.

Yeh said around 20 to 30 million people are employed in companies operated by the Taiwanese in China. "Taiwanese-owned" Japanese firms are the leading investors in China, he added.

Yeh said of the 23 million Taiwanese, around one million are living and doing business in China. The Taiwanese enter China legally from another country with the acquiescence of the Chinese government, which issues them residency permits and allows them to do business, he added. Despite increased Taiwanese investments in China, the Taiwan government does not favor economic integration with China.

It has been greatly disadvantageous for Taiwan to be banned from United Nations-affiliated organizations, especially in getting vital information to stop the spread of diseases, pointed out Jeh-heng Lee, specialist general at Taiwan’s Department of Health. He said that when the bird flu virus threatened Taiwan, they felt vulnerable because they could not get any information from the World Health Organization. "Taiwan needs to join the WHO so we can get vital information about diseases," he stressed.

A visit to Taiwan will easily convince you of its economic capability, with a lot of money to spend on modern infrastructure and transportation facilities for the benefit of its 23 million people. Perhaps proof of Taiwan’s wealth can best be seen at the ultra modern Taoyuan International Airport, where departing passengers are not made to pay a terminal fee.