The government is working to increase the annual output value of Taiwan’s biotech industry to more than NT$1 trillion (NT$30.86 billion) in four years through the creation of a biotechnology venture capital fund and incubation centers, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday.
The biotech industry is one of the government’s priorities in its efforts to lure foreign investment, Ma said at the opening of the four-day BioTaiwan event at the Taipei World Trade Center.
“We hope to attract investment and expertise from Europe and the United States to help the local biotech industry become part of the global innovative movement,” he said. “Taiwan should be confident of achieving this goal, as it now plays a more prominent role on the global economic stage since it clinched an economic cooperation framework agreement with China.”
Taiwan’s production of an A(H1N1) vaccine last year is an example of its achievements in the biotech field, he said, adding that Taiwan would donate 2 million doses of the vaccine to Guatemala, one of its diplomatic allies in Central America.
The government has been doing its best to promote the biotech industry and aims to increase its annual research and development budget for that sector to at least 3 percent of GDP in two years, the president said.
Last year, the production value of Taiwan’s biotech industry was NT$210.5 billion, according to government statistics. The figure for this year is expected to exceed that amount.
Last year, private sector investment in the local biotech industry totaled NT$26.28 billion, up 5 percent from 2008.
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