The high level of investment in technology research and development is not being rewarded and is instead seeing the nation’s trade deficit increasing, growing from NT$36.8 billion (US$1.21 billion) to NT$115.7 billion between 2002 to 2010, a report by the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said.
Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) has said that the government is committed to dedicating a high level of funding to technological research and development, in spite of the nation’s financial difficulties.
Citing data from the Ministry of Science and Technology, the report said science and research funding averages NT$90 billion per year, about 3 percent of the GDP, adding that next year’s budget for science and research stands at NT$99 billion, a slight increase of NT$610 million from this year.
There is an over-concentration of research funding as 80 percent of the money is allotted to the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Academia Sinica, the report said.
Despite the 213.88 percent increase in funding from 2002 to 2010, the self-sufficiency levels of the nation’s scientific research establishments have shown no increase, the report said, adding that the funding had failed to stimulate private scientific research.
Commenting on the report, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said there is no clear government policy on science and research, with some domestic research conducted ineffectively when it comes to upgrading industries.
A large part of key technologies for industrial upgrades are reliant on foreign imports, causing a large technological trade deficit, with the largest importers being the US and Japan, Huang added.
Imports of technology from the US rose from 36.26 percent in 2002 to 72.06 percent in 2010, while the figures for technological imports from countries other than the US, Japan and Germany dropped from 23.56 percent in 2002 to 6.99 percent in 2010, Huang said.
The amount of annual governmental research funding is less than the annual funding of pharmaceutical businesses in the US and the UK, Huang said, adding that if the government does not address the nation’s balance of foreign technological imports, Taiwan may soon begin importing Chinese technology.
“To become advanced in every sector is impossible — it is the government’s duty to choose a core industry with a high potential for development and to come up with well-rounded industry policies,” Huang said.
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