Promoting biotechnology, semiconductors and digital transformation are the key to creating an innovative, inclusive and sustainable society by 2030, Minister of Science and Technology (MOST) Wu Tsung-tsong (吳政忠) said yesterday as he took office.
Wu, 65, an expert on applied mechanics, served as a minister without portfolio, overseeing tech-related policy, since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office in 2016.
Prior to that, he was a convener of the technology division of the New Frontier Foundation, a think tank linked to the Democratic Progressive Party.
Photo: CNA
He assumed office at a ceremony at the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taipei overseen by Minister Without Portfolio Chang Jing-sen (張景森), as his predecessor, Chen Liang-gee (陳良基), handed him the seal of office.
Chen laid the critical foundation for promoting innovation and startups, basic research and training international talent, as he had pledged to when he took office in February 2017, Wu said.
He would continue Chen’s policies, and aim to make Taiwan an innovative, inclusive and sustainable society by 2030, Wu said.
The goals are to solve problems generated by the aging society, declining birth rate, a widening wealth gap, environmental changes and insufficient energy supply, as well as tackle the challenges posed by new social modalities, which require considerations about socio-economic, environmental and political changes, he said.
Wu named six development directions — biotechnology and precision health initiatives, more advanced semiconductors, digital transformation, 6G networks that involve the applications of low-orbit satellites, boosting cybersecurity capability, and improving Internet connections among public and private sectors — that he had planned during his time as a minister without portfolio.
Praising Hsinchu-based Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) as the “pride of Taiwan,” Wu said the ministry would work with the company and research institutions to develop semiconductors measured in angstrom units to build a “smart nation.”
Ministry executives and officers on Tuesday afternoon threw a farewell party for Chen that lasted for more than three hours.
He was proud of having helped keep TSMC’s 3-nanometer fab in Tainan, the launch of two satellites — the remote sensing satellite Formosat-5 in 2017 and Formosat-7/COSMIC2 constellation for weather observation last year — and three new research vessels, said Chen at the party.
Chen, the longest-serving technology minister thus far, said that he regretted having to cancel a headhunting trip that had been planned for late March, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
Chen said he planned to return to research at National Taiwan University.
In related news, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Shieh Dar-bin (謝達斌), an expert in oral medicine, and Vice Minister of Science and Technology Tsou Yu-han (鄒幼涵), a long-time ministry official, have been retained in their posts.
Former deputy minister Hsu Yu-chin (許有進), recruited by Chen from Synopsys and responsible for promoting startups, has been replaced by Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Lin Minn-tsong (林敏聰), a physicist, who had been director-general of the ministry’s Natural Sciences and Sustainable Development Department.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS