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Tycoon Terry Gou makes massive donation to NTU

Tycoon Terry Gou (郭台銘) announced yesterday that he will donate NT$15 billion (US$454.54 million) to National Taiwan University (NTU) to fund bio-medical engineering projects and the construction of a cancer hospital.

Gou, who heads Hon Hai Precision Co (鴻海集團), signed a memorandum of understanding with NTU president Lee Si-chen (李嗣涔). Lee said the donation would be the largest to a university medical school in the past 40 years.

Gou, considered the wealthiest man in Taiwan, will donate around NT$10 billion for the construction of a 500-bed cancer center and a state-of-the-art proton center for cancer treatment.

A further NT$5 billion will be spent on biomedical engineering projects, medical equipment, research and development, a stem cell implant center, preventive medicine and early cancer detection and treatment.

All profits generated from these projects will be used for charity and medical research, Gou said.

Gou's wife died of breast cancer two years ago and his younger brother Kuo Tai-cheng (郭台成) died from leukemia in July.

Gou said he made the decision to make the donation in the space of two weeks late last month.

Lee said Gou's donation would be used to turn the Kuankuan branch of NTU Hospital into a biomedical science park.

Gou said a charity he had founded would work closely with NTU.

Compared with top-notch research institutes, such as the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in the US, Taiwan's cancer research institutes still have a long way to go, Lee said.

He called for more donations so that the school could improve to reach the level of first-class cancer research centers.
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