Vietnam is set to become Taiwan's gateway to take high-tech expertise to other Southeast Asian countries and to bring brain power from the region back into Taiwan, the Taipei Times learned from the National Science Council (NSC) yesterday.
According to NSC Deputy Minister Shieh Ching-jyh (
The council currently supervises 13 science and technology divisions in major cities in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, Belgium, France, Japan, Russia and Australia.
"In Vietnam, burgeoning investment activities involving Taiwan's private sector are forcing the government to take the transfer of technological know-how in the region more seriously," Shieh said.
Taiwan is currently ranked as one of Vietnam's leading foreign investors, according to the council.
Shieh said that the new division would promote technology transfer projects in Southeast Asian countries and even India in order to create greater impacts in the field of science and technology development.
"For example, Taiwan's experience in establishing and running high-tech science parks successfully has caught the interest of developing countries in the region," Shieh said.
Through the establishment of research and development centers in southeast Asian countries, the council hopes to help these countries based on experience gained from Taiwan's own technological development.
NSC officials said the move would strengthen Taiwan's influence in certain fields involving advanced technologies, including nanotechnology and biotechnology, in the APEC Science and Technology Network. It would also create more opportunities for high-level Taiwanese officials, academics and experts to converse with their counterparts in these countries.
According to the council, major fields of cooperation will include the promotion of sustainable development, geological research, the prevention of marine pollution, remote sensing technology, disaster control and training programs for operating precision instruments.
"The outstanding working environment and high-tech facilities in Taiwan are always attractions to overseas high-tech professionals in developing countries," said Chen Chien-jen (
Instrument Development Center.
The council's National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering has invited high-tech professionals in Vietnam and the Philippines to Taipei for disaster prevention workshops over the last four years. These expertise-transfer programs were prompted by the 7.3-magnitude earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, which claimed more than 2,400 lives.
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