President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) urged all farmers yesterday to upgrade their knowledge and technology in order to overcome challenges resulting from Taiwan's entry into the WTO.
"In addition to the human labor and sweat which successfully promoted Taiwan's agricultural industries in the past decades, we now need more innovation and technology to compete with other countries," Chen said.
He made the comment while receiving agricultural experts yesterday at the Presidential Office.
His guests were winners of the "Golden Dragon Award," the nation's annual award to 10 outstanding young farmers from the countryside.
Chen said that Taiwan's success in pushing to combine industrial growth with agricultural development is the foundation on which the nation's economy is based and a model for developing countries to emulate.
"Since we have already entered the WTO, all those who are devoted to agricultural industries should help facilitate the upgrading of this industry," Chen said, "and the only way to promote the competitiveness of our agricultural industries in the international arena is to speed up the upgrading of the agricultural sector."
He said that at this critical moment, outstanding farm youths and agricultural experts are an indispensable help to the government in expediting the upgrading of agriculture.
In the future, Chen added, it will also take the continuous efforts of agricultural experts and farmers to cultivate a "green Taiwan."
The president said that the government would push for agricultural developments and assist farmers in making technical transformations of their trade and in updating their knowledge.
RSS