A new think tank made up of political, economic and academic heavyweights will be formed by the end of the month and is expected to be an important brain trust for President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
The group, the Taiwan Think Tank (台灣智庫), will be headed by chairman of the Taiwan Stock Exchange Lin Jong-hsiung (林鐘雄) and will include several pro-Chen entrepreneurs and political figures. The think tank will hold its official founding ceremony on Dec. 30.
"The purpose of the think tank is to help create consensus between the government and other circles," said former secretary-general to the premier Wea Chi-lin (
In addition to Lin, another well-known scholar joining the group is Ko Chen-en (柯承恩), dean of National Taiwan University's College of Management. Political heavyweights Commissioner of the National Security Council Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), Minister-without-portfolio Hsu Chih-hsiung (許志雄) and Director-General of the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park Administration James Lee (李界木) have all signed on.
Cathay Life Chairman Tsai Hong-tu (
Wea said that over the past year, members of the new think tank have already provided the government with many policy-making suggestions through a number of forums and seminars.
"[But] this think tank is definitely not a `salute to power,'" Wea said. "We expect it to be a platform on which those with knowledge and those who have the power to form policy can exchange dialogue and on which intellectuals and policy-makers can interact with each other on an equal footing," Wea said.
"We aspire to become the driving force behind political, economic and social policies," he said.
A government official who will be a member of the new group said that eight forums within the think tank are already up and running and that some of them have actually been in operation for nearly a year.
The member said that they include forums that tackle issues related to the Economic Development Advisory Conference, government and financial reform and responses to Taiwan's WTO entry.
Wea confirmed the comments and said that "some concrete ideas put forth by these forums have already been adopted by the government."
The think-tank member said that the group will try to use its talent to help the Chen administration.
"The DPP has long been thought of as not having enough policy-making experience or enough talented people that are up to the job.
"Now people from business, academia and political circles who are friendly to Chen Shui-bian are putting their money and resources together to extensively recruit like-minded intellectuals to finally form the Taiwan Think Tank," the member said.
The member said the think tank is comprised of three groups of talent. The first, such as Lin Chung-hsiung, is from academia. The second includes aides from Chen's national security system and people hailing from the anti-KMT student-movement generation of the 1980s. The third consists of government officials and business leaders.
Several political, academic and business heavyweights have agreed to act as consultants to the new group.
Among them are Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (
A source from the Presidential Office said that the president has high expectations for the group and that it might serve as a training ground for cultivating talent for Chen's administration.
"The DPP's cultivation of talent is outpaced by its expansion of power. The government could only borrow people from the KMT when it was formed last year, but this cannot be the norm," the source said.
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