The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and the French Office in Taipei yesterday expressed their hope to boost ties with Taiwan through technological collaboration and talent cultivation, and both hailed semiconductors and innovation as Taiwan’s strengths.
The two-day Global Science and Technology Leaders Forum, organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology, opened yesterday at the Mandarin Oriental Taipei (文華東方酒店) hotel, and nearly 300 participants from Taiwan and 18 other countries attended.
In a speech, AIT Director Brent Christensen helped mark the ministry’s 60th anniversary, telling the forum that Taiwan is a critical link in global technology supply chains.
Photo: Chien Hui-ju, Taipei Times
Christensen also alerted people to the challenges of the new digital age.
China’s market-distorting subsidies, intellectual property theft and talent poaching threaten a rules-based economic order, he said, calling for closer ties among like-minded partners to push back against Beijing.
The US and Taiwan have launched the Talent Circulation Alliance to facilitate educational and professional exchanges, with a summit scheduled for Tuesday next week, he said.
French Office in Taipei Director Jean-Francois Casabonne-Masonnave said that artificial intelligence (AI), entrepreneurship and talent exchanges are primary opportunities for further France-Taiwan collaboration.
“AI is a priority for our President [Emmanuel Macron] and is a very fertile ground for scientific cooperation between France and Taiwan,” he said, expressing the hope that more Taiwanese students would pursue scientific and engineering training in France.
An example of bilateral collaboration is the Franco-Taiwanese Scientific Grand Prize, which has been awarded annually for more than 20 years, he said, adding that French National Centre for Scientific Research chairman Antoine Petit is expected to visit Taiwan in the spring.
The US remains Taiwan’s primary partner in technological cooperation, and the talent cultivation initiative aims to bring more young people to the international stage, Minister of Science and Technology Chen Liang-gee (陳良基) told reporters.
Taiwan-France collaboration in technology has a history of more than 20 years, while the two nations exchanged six start-up teams this year, Chen said.
The ministry has also established 12 overseas research centers across Southeast Asia, where it is helping countries install disaster prevention systems, he added.
Asked what idea he would share at the forum, Albert Liu (劉峻誠), founder and CEO of Kneron Inc (耐能), one of the developers of Edge AI solutions, said he hopes that the Taiwanese government can relax certain regulations to facilitate AI development.
Many public security and financial systems employ AI, but Taiwan’s relatively conservative regulations in those fields impose barriers on larger-scale innovation, he said, citing the government’s requirement that shareholders provide their identity documents.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from