Lawmakers said on Wednesday that the government should work hard to join the international Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as an observer.
Members of the legislator's Sci-Tech and Information Committee made the suggestion during a meeting attended by officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the National Science Council and the Cabinet's Science and Technology Advisory Group.
In July last year, an interministerial group led by MOEA's Board of Foreign Trade decided to list Taiwan's participation of OECD's four committees as an observer in their priority work. The four are the Trade Committee, the Committee on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises, the Committee on Financial Markets, and the Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy.
However, as China has taken the lead in joining the OECD committee as an observer in August last year, the government decided to remove this committee from their priority list in view of possible opposition from Beijing.
The lawmakers noted that as Taiwan boasts considerable economic power, enjoys a certain level of world recognition in development and scientific research and has frequently participated in the OECD's activities, they see no reason why the organization would choose to exclude Taiwan.
They are of the opinion that Taiwan should not downgrade itself just because China is already an observer of the OECD committee.
Many officials said that Beijing would oppose Taiwan's bid to join any world organization. Taiwan should therefore work harder to make its presence felt internationally.
They added that they would like to see Taiwan first join the three other committees -- where it has a better chance of being admitted -- and then think about joining the scientific committee.
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