Mr. Linghu began the conference session next morning, encouraging the students to be proud of being Taiwanese. He reminded them of Taiwan’s internationally top-ranking economic and trade strengths, and globally famous technological products, and Taiwan’s sustained positive contribution to the international community, especially the contributions made by agricultural and medical groups in the Third World.

His opening speech was followed by each of the directors of the different divisions at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada giving a brief introduction of the functions of their division. These are the Economic Division, the Education Division, the Information Division, Public Affairs Division, the Science & Technology Division, and the Services Division. A film “Our Island: Diaoyutai” was then screened to fully inform students’ about the background to Taiwan’s position that it has sovereignty over the Diaoyutai Islands.

In the afternoon the officials of the student association at each of the 11 universities made a brief presentation about their organization, members, activities, and services provided. They shared their management and leadership experiences with great enthusiasm. In the subsequent open discussion, students proposed some cooperative cross-university activities. They also offered suggestions about future conferences to the Education Division. The participants positively affirmed the conference as a great platform for comprehensively discussing commonly met situations, and joint ventures between the various Taiwanese Student Associations in eastern Canada.