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Taiwan to advise developing nations in Europe and Asia

Taiwan's achievements in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and its past experience of building industrial parks will be helpful tools in assisting countries in transition -- such as central and eastern Europe and Central Asia -- in developing information societies and knowledge-based economies, the National Science Council (NSC) said yesterday.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), established in 1991 to foster transition toward open market economies, has invited NSC Chairman Wu Maw-kuen (吳茂昆), to be a keynote speaker at a workshop in Belgrade, Serbia, on May 21, a day before the opening of this year's annual meeting of the EBRD.

"For those countries once under the conflagration of war, Taiwan's precious experience of building industrial parks, which drive a country's economic development, might positively accelerate their reconstruction," Wu told a press conference yesterday.

The goal of the workshop is to develop an information society and knowledge-based economy in the transition economies of the Western Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asian countries, as outlined in the Early Transition Countries Initiative.

The discussion will focus on creating a communication infrastructure through private investment and developing ICT business clusters in each country.

Wu said that those countries have been very interested in Taiwan's ICT business clusters, its experience in developing technologically sophisticated small- and medium-sized enterprises in ICT areas, integrated-circuit foundries, the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park and a close university-industry relationship. Wu said that Taiwan, despite being a country in a diplomatic plight, still has alternative ways of expanding its international space.

Taking the council as an example, Wu said that international cooperation has been processed in fields ranging from scientific research, cultivating new talent and experience exchanges on industrial development. Through the channel of the EBRD or other international organizations, Wu said, Taiwan can promote capacity-building of developing countries.

Taiwan will also hold an annual meeting for Taiwan's trilateral collaboration with Latvia and Lithuania in June, and the fund for the cooperation will be boosted to US$300,000 from US$200,000.

The council is continuing to work on its participation in the Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy of the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). According to Lin Kwang-lung (林光隆), director-general of the council's Department of International Cooperation, participation in the OECD will definitely facilitate Taiwan's contributions.
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