The arrival of high-ranking EU political, academic and economic representatives next month will mark the start of intensive scientific research between both sides, increasing Taiwan's influence in the sector of information and communication technologies (ICT), according to the National Science Council yesterday.
The 2005 Euro-Taiwan ICT Cooperation Event will be held at the end of next month in Taipei and Hsinchu.
The event is the result of Taiwan's first official scientific collaboration agreement, which was signed by the council and the Directorate-General Information Society of the European Commission in 2003.
The agreement encourages Taiwanese researchers to participate in collaborative projects involving EU's Sixth Framework Program, which sets out the priorities for the years 2002 to 2006, including the information society technologies (IST).
According to the council, the Information Society Technologies (IST) Program of the European Commission has supported the GAPFILL Project, which is aimed at boosting scientific and technological cooperation between Europe and Asia in the ICT field.
According to the council's deputy minister, Shieh Ching-jyh (謝清志), Taiwan was designated one of four main collaborative targets in Asia this year by the EU's Euro-Asia project. The other three are Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.
"Among these countries, we are confident that Taiwan might be the most helpful to EU because of our recent vigorous development of the service industry for communication technologies," Shieh told a press conference yesterday.
Shieh said that the April 28-29 event will serve as a platform for researchers from local universities, research institutes and private companies to make useful European connections.
Since last December, there have been 110 research proposals involving ICT in the fields of health, biotechnology, and cyber technologies filed to the council for the GAPFILL Project.
Meanwhile, research centers and private companies in the EU have proposed about 50 possible projects linked to Taiwan.
According to Lin Kwang-lung (
"Taiwan having a strong high-tech development background makes it an ideal collaborative partner for certain smaller EU members, whose basic IT infrastructures are just began to take shape," Lin said.
Lin said that next month's event is more about networking and matchmaking than a conference or workshop.
NSC officials said that networking has been crucial for scientific research in an era focusing on strategic alliances. The council is promoting the participation in GAPFILL Project to help gradually increase Taiwan's influence upon the EU.
Since late last year, the European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan has made an effort to promote GAPFILL with Taiwanese branches of top European firms. More information on Euro-Taiwan collaboration is expected to be discussed on Monday by s representatives and council officials.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
Taiwanese singer Jay Chou (周杰倫) plans to take to the courts of the Australian Open for the first time as a competitor in the high-stakes 1 Point Slam. The Australian Open yesterday afternoon announced the news on its official Instagram account, welcoming Chou — who celebrates his 47th birthday on Sunday — to the star-studded lineup of the tournament’s signature warm-up event. “From being the King of Mandarin Pop filling stadiums with his music to being Kato from The Green Hornet and now shifting focus to being a dedicated tennis player — welcome @jaychou to the 1 Point Slam and #AusOpen,” the
RSS