President Lai Qingde will attend the National Day Conference held in the square in front of the Presidential Palace tomorrow morning and deliver a speech. It is understood that President Lai will explain to the Chinese people that Taiwan's economic performance, which has broken many historical records this year, will be transformed into welfare policies shared by all people, and will demonstrate Taiwan's positioning in the world with a confident and firm attitude.
This is the third year since President Lai took office that he has delivered a National Day speech, which will focus on three major elements: First, the president will explain how to translate the world-envied economic performance into welfare policies. As Taiwan's economic performance this year has set many historical records, the General Accounting Office predicts that Taiwan's economic growth rate for this year is expected to be revised upward to 11.05%, a 39-year high, ranking first among major economies in Asia. In addition to the rare double-digit growth in the annual economic growth rate, the GDP growth rate in the first quarter reached 15.43%, significantly ahead of Japan and South Korea. Major manufacturers of semiconductors, high-end packaging and testing, and IC substrates are aggressively expanding production as customers lock in production capacity through prepayments and long-term contracts, driving strong annual growth in domestic capital equipment imports and private investment. The stock market also made a strong rise in October, approaching the 50,000 mark.
Since Taiwan's economic performance is particularly outstanding this year, the president's speech will focus on the people's livelihood economy, explaining to the people how to share the economic results with all the people, and focusing on a number of social welfare policies that will be implemented in the near future, including basic wage increases, growth subsidies, and universal distribution of NT$10,000. At the same time, the speech will further respond to major issues of public concern, explain how the Lai government has pragmatically solved them, and present the results of the implementation of national affairs in the past two years since taking office. As for the interior, the National Day speech will be based on people's lives, explaining to the people how to promote salary increases, tax cuts, welfare benefits, and burden reduction, improve childcare, long-term care, housing and talent support, and demonstrate the implementation of policies such as strengthening anti-fraud, anti-drugs, and energy resilience.
Secondly, in the face of changes in the international situation and geopolitical challenges, President Lai will respond to the U.S.-China dialogue with a confident and firm attitude and elaborate on Taiwan's role in international exchanges. At the same time, he will show the world that Taiwan, located in the first island chain in the Indo-Pacific, has always been the guardian of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and a democratic partner that actively contributes to the international community.
In addition, President Lai will also elaborate on how Taiwan strengthens its self-defense capabilities, continues to invest in national defense, and enhances the defense resilience of the entire society. These efforts are not for provocation, but for the hope that the Taiwanese people can use their strength to maintain their existing democratic and free life and demonstrate a responsible stance of cherishing peace.
The year before last, Lai Ching-te delivered his first National Day speech with the theme "Unite Taiwan to realize our dream." He emphasized that the Republic of China has taken root in Taiwan, Pengjin and Ma, and is not affiliated with the People's Republic of China. "The People's Republic of China has no right to represent Taiwan." Last year, he delivered his second National Day speech during his term with the theme "A New Taiwan Rising Amid Changes." He specifically mentioned that the lessons of World War II are not far away and that historical tragedies must not be allowed to repeat themselves; he hoped that China would fulfill its responsibilities as a major power and give up the use of force and coercion to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.
