At the closing ceremony of the 9th National Science and Technology Conference held in Taipei, Premier Sean Chen today said science and technology are the bedrock of the nation's competitiveness, and that Taiwan can advance economic growth by translating more of its research into industrial applications.
The premier noted it was important to build an environment conducive for training and retaining talent, and to loosen regulations to allow more room for conducting research and development. Since academic and research institutes are the cradles of talent—and talent is fundamental to national development—it makes perfect sense to modify certain laws to make accounting, procurement and expense verification procedures more reasonable for these institutes. In this way, they can have the people and resources needed to sustain the nation's academic research output, said the premier.
As for industrial upgrading and innovation, the premier said all sectors urged the government to play a bigger role by not only designating specific industries for development, but also by providing more resources for upgrading technologies, formulating a protective network for intellectual property rights (IPR), and creating an environment favorable for innovation.
On these matters, Chen said the Executive Yuan already approved a set of IPR strategic guidelines on November 29 as part of an IPR deployment initiative under the government's Economic Power-Up Plan, which was announced September 11. However, he acknowledges the government sometimes has difficulty intervening directly in international IPR litigations, but does have the means to help establish an IPR management company of a private nature.
Regarding sustainable development, the premier said the conference's final report recommended that all efforts cover considerations of ecological conservation, economic development and social equality. This also corresponds with the general principles of sustainable development as advocated by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
The National Science Council (NSC) stated the conference discussed several broad issues: raising Taiwan's academic status, deploying Taiwan's IPR, promoting sustainable development, linking R&D with industries, promoting Taiwan's technological innovation (including those related to information and communications) top-down, and tackling the talent shortage crisis.
The premier credited the success of the two-day event to the NSC's planning and the academic sector's efficient traditions. He borrowed the story of Albert Einstein, who after hearing a series of seemingly endless speeches at a meeting in 1921 jokingly attributed the lengthy orations to his just-developed "theory of eternity." Since that time, it is said, speeches have been short and meetings more efficient in the American scientific community.