NSC officials attend Vancouver seminar

Taiwan and Canada co-sponsored a seminar last week in Vancouver in which government officials and experts from the two countries unveiled their research results and agreed to forge two-way cooperation on new energy sources, according to National Science Council (NSC) officials.

During the symposium -- attended by officials and specialists from the NSC, the Industrial Technology Research Institute and Canada's National Research Council -- a total of 16 research reports were presented and 12 cooperative ventures on the latest developments to use fuel batteries as an alternative energy source were agreed upon, the officials said.

The exploration of the expertise on using fuel batteries as a new energy source is a key development area covered by the government's "Challenge 2008," they noted.

According to the NSC officials, the Vancouver seminar was the first ever of its kind held by the government, academic and industrial sectors of the two countries.

In his speech to the seminar, National Research Council vice president Richard Normandin, called for more frequent substantial exchanges between the two countries.

The attendees from Taiwan, including Chen Fa-lin (陳發林) of National Taiwan University, also paid a visit to the Canada National Research Council's fuel battery laboratory and Power Tech and Greenlight Power Technologies, two companies devoted to the development and services of fuel battery, as part of their efforts to better understand the world's most advanced technologies in the field.