The Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation, established last year to oversee President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) New Southbound Policy, was named one of the best new think tanks worldwide in the University of Pennsylvania’s Global Go To Think Tank Index Report.
The 13th edition of the report was released by the US-based university’s Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program on Tuesday.
It selected 27 international think tanks established in the past two years for the unranked list. The foundation is the only one from Taiwan to make the list this year.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
There were 8,162 think tanks worldwide as of last year, with the US being home to the majority (1,871), followed by India (509) and China (507), the report said.
Taiwan was 25th with 61 think tanks, it said.
In addition to the foundation, 11 other Taiwan-based think tanks were selected in other categories, including the state-funded Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, which was ninth on the list of the top think tanks in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (19th), the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (21st) and National Chengchi University’s Institute for International Relations (25th).
The Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation, which is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, yesterday said it was selected as one of the best new think tanks six months after its establishment in August last year, which showed the high level of attention the international community has paid to the New Southbound Policy and the nation’s foreign relations.
Aside from holding its flagship Yushan Forum later this year, it also plans to hold dialogues with the Philippines-based Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, the Institute of Developing Economies-Japan External Trade Organization, the American Institute in Taiwan’s American Cultural Center, and other think tanks and non-governmental organizations in Southeast Asia and South Asia, it said.
It is also to publish a report on Taiwan-India relations and an evaluation of the New Southbound Policy in the middle of this year, it said.
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