President optimistic about future for Taiwan’s next generation
Taipei, Jan. 6 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) lauded his administration’s efforts to improve the country’s development and expressed optimism Wednesday about the future for Taiwan’s next generation, citing a recent survey that found Taiwan the most optimistic about the future among other Asian nations.
If peace and prosperity in the Taiwan Strait and Asia can be maintained, it is very likely that young adults in 2030 will be able to enjoy great happiness and well-being, Ma said during a meeting with a visiting delegation of Canadian parliamentarians.
His remarks came after the survey found that people in Taiwan are more optimistic than those in 16 other countries and territories across the Asia-Pacific region about the state of the world for the next generation.
In terms of overall levels of well-being for the next generation, people in Taiwan were the most optimistic on a rating from 0-100, with a score of 80.0, followed by South Korea (71.8) and Hong Kong (69.3), according to MasterCard’s first Next Generation Well-Being Index that was released recently.
Next generation was defined as people born since the year 2000 or people who will be aged 30 by 2030.
The average score across the 17 countries and territories surveyed was 55.6.
For the MasterCard index, 8,718 people aged 18-64 in 17 developed and emerging market countries across the Asia-Pacific region were asked about their outlook for the next generation, covering issues including gender and financial equality, the environment, health, work-life balance, stress, disease and crime, during the period from May to June 2015.
Speaking about the survey results, Ma said that “we’re very confident of the fruits of our efforts.”
During Wednesday’s meeting, the president also lauded the development of Taiwan-Canada ties.
He said that the two countries have concluded negotiations on an agreement on avoidance of double taxation and are expected to sign the pact soon.
He also expressed hope that the two sides will begin negotiating an investment protection agreement in an effort to advance bilateral trade relations.
Speaking on Taiwan’s efforts to be a part of regional economic integration, Ma repeated Taiwan’s wish to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade bloc and expressed hope that Canada will support Taiwan’s bid in this regard. Canada is one of the 12 existing TPP countries.
