President Tsai's remarks for Lunar New Year

On the night before Lunar New Year's eve, President Tsai Ing-wen wished a safe and happy New Year via video to her fellow citizens and friends around the world.

In her recorded remarks, President Tsai called on the people of Taiwan to continue monitoring the latest information on the pandemic and to follow disease prevention measures. She also thanked those who will be standing guard and working shifts over

the holiday to provide essential services, and encouraged everyone to keep up the good work so Taiwan can achieve even more.

A translation of the president's full remarks is as follows:

Good evening. Today, on the night before Lunar New Year's eve, I want to wish an early happy Year of the Tiger to everyone in Taiwan and all our friends celebrating this holiday around the world.

With the Lunar New Year break having already begun, I want to first thank our military, police, firefighters, coast guard, and medical personnel who will be standing guard over the holiday. I also want to thank our partners at state-run enterprises working over the break to provide us with fuel, water, power, and other necessities, as well as all those now working shifts to serve customers at convenience stores, deliver mail and food, and provide other key public services.

Over the past year, we in Taiwan came together to overcome many challenges. During the level 3 COVID-19 alert, we encouraged one another to leave home only when necessary, and successfully contained the pandemic. We protected one another by getting vaccinated, and dramatically increased our vaccine coverage in just a short period of time.

We dealt with our most severe drought in a century by saving water and developing new water resources, and turned a crisis into an opportunity to dredge and clean our reservoirs and waterways. Not only that, we used last year's referendum to collectively decide the direction of our nation's future development.

Thanks to our unity and hard work, Taiwan has enjoyed outstanding economic progress. Exports have risen for 18 consecutive months, and we posted economic growth of over 6 percent last year, setting an 11-year high.

Looking ahead, let's keep up the good work and achieve even more together. Let me also give a special thanks to our democratic partners for supporting Taiwan over the past year. We will continue to strengthen our exchanges with countries around the world and engage with the global community.

Here, I want to call on everyone to respond to the challenges of the pandemic with calm and vigilance, not panic. I also want to thank all our friends working to fight COVID-19, and to encourage everyone to do their part in this fight by getting vaccinated as soon as possible.

During the Lunar New Year holiday, please continue to monitor the latest information on the pandemic, and follow disease prevention measures in order to protect yourself and others.

Let's stick together to maintain our positive momentum in the year to come. Thank you, and I wish you all a happy Year of the Tiger!

I wish you all a safe New Year.  (Mandarin)

I wish you all a safe New Year. (Taiwanese).

I wish you all a happy New Year. (Hakka)

I wish you all a happy New Year. (Eastern Min)