Today marked the opening of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) workshop to promote women and girls' participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The event will run from October 24 to October 27 at the Regent Taipei hotel, and is part of a broader workshop series—the APEC Gendered Innovation for Technology and Science (GIFTS): Promoting Women in STEM for Sustainable Growth—sponsored this year by the Executive Yuan to boost the competitiveness of women in today's digital age.
The event takes a four-pronged approach to addressing the issue of women applying their full potential and limitless creativity to the fields of science and technology, discussing the environment, education, employment and entrepreneurship. Through sharing and deliberation, participants will promote women's presence in STEM to the far corners of the APEC region. A number of site visits have also been scheduled to allow participants to see firsthand how Taiwan is creating a gender-friendly STEM environment in both the educational and business arenas.
The workshop brings together many well-known private-sector partners, including Intel Taiwan, Microsoft Taiwan and PanSci, as well as 18 foreign workshop participants from 14 nations: Australia, Chile, South Korea, Germany, the Philippines, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Kenya, Vietnam, the United States and Malaysia. The three and a half days of working sessions will encourage interaction and cooperation among both local and international representatives from the public and private sectors, and highlight the many successes of Taiwan's long-standing dedication to gender issues.