Taiwan Pins Hope on Science

By Henry Kelly

Editor’s Note: On November 12-17, 2003, Henry Kelly attended the 24th Science and Technology Advisory Group (STAG) Board meeting of the Taiwan Executive Cabinet. He was invited to serve as a guest Advisor at the meeting, which was convened by the Premier to coordinate local industry, government, academia and research institutes to address Science and Technology issues. Kelly opened the second day of the meeting, dedicated to Sustainable Development and Industry Policy, with a keynote speech entitled, "Policies that Drive Sustainable Economic Growth." Below are some of his observations from the trip.

Traveling in Taiwan with Yuan Tseh Lee, Nobel laureate in Chemistry and President of the Academica Sinica, is like touring the US with a rock star. People stop him on the sidewalk to ask to be photographed with him and rush into restaurants to shake his hand. We walked into a small shop in a remote village and a passing college student who spotted him returned quickly with ten friends to ask for a group picture. He always graciously complied.

Lee’s treatment is well deserved – he’s a brilliant, thoughtful and generous man who has made enormous contributions to world science and to Taiwan. But it also reflects a strong consensus that technology has been good to Taiwan and remains the undisputed hope for its future – a belief that has endured through the rough economic times of the past few years. The power of this idea is certainly reflected in their passion for education – much of it in technical subjects. It seems that everyone is in school or planning to take an evening course to bone up for a new job. When I asked why the subways in Taipei were crammed at 8pm, there was universal agreement that the crowd resulted from people rushing from offices to night courses. In fact a quarter of the entire population is enrolled in an educational institution at any given time. Nearly half the high school graduates go on to college.

I received an intense, if brief, view of all of this in a few days of reviewing the government’s new science and technology plans as a foreign member of the Science and Technology Advisory Group – STAG (yes, they could use some acronym counseling). After coping with Washington where it takes a heroic effort to generate excitement about any research not directly related to security, it was delightful to participate in a serious discussion of how science and technology policy could contribute to economic and social goals. This doesn’t mean that the military is being shortchanged; Taiwan spends a higher fraction of its GDP on defense than any European nation.

The Taiwanese proposals we were asked to review were obviously the result of considerable effort and interest to the highest levels of government. We met privately with Premier Yu Shyi-kun who asked unrehearsed, probing questions of the participants and went on to deliver a passionate public address on the subject. He spoke extemporaneously for at least 15 minutes on the need to use scientific research to find ways to build a Taiwan that is economically successful and at the same time preserves and celebrates the beauty of its natural environment. In a nation bristling with some of the world’s most aggressive business managers, it was delightful to find a leader convinced that given good government, well managed collective action to preserve environmental quality could be completely compatible with rapid economic growth. The most contentious environmental issues are: (1) the completion of the fourth nuclear plant – the current government is backing away from a commitment to stop construction – and (2) aggressive, some would say pork-barrel, road building – they seem to suffer from the Japanese illness.

The planners focused on three central questions: (1) how to shift Taiwan from a highly successful imitator to an innovator – including an ability to innovate in the delivery of services; (2) how to use science and technology to meet domestic and international obligations to achieve a "sustainable economy" and (3) how best to prepare for a reflection. And they were of great possible return of SARS or another unexpected infectious disease.

The economic challenge results from the fact that the Mainland Chinese are beating the Taiwanese at their own game in low-cost manufacturing in electronics and many areas -- in no small part because of capital and expertise provided by aggressive Taiwanese business people. The new national goal is for Taiwan to be at the cutting edge in inventing new products and processes in information technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology and other areas. The clear subtext is a sense that the US is stumbling in its management of innovation, leaving a real opening for Taiwanese innovators. They have a clear shot at the gold ring. The need to build a world class university system in Taiwan was a consistent theme. STAG members Lew Branscomb, Eugene Wang and Ian Ross provided a constructive review of the plans and sounded a strong warning against the temptation to measure the success of university research largely by patent generation or success in solving corporate research problems. They also described the large leap that would be needed for the research program to support innovations in services.

The SARS outbreak that hit Taiwan in the spring of 2003 exposed the weaknesses of Taiwan’s infrastructure for dealing with infectious diseases. While the Taiwanese response was certainly better than it was in many other places – and probably on a par with the US –they were very willing to talk about the painful lessons that had been learned and eager for advice about strengthening the system. The STAG team recommended that Taiwan anchor an Asian Pacific research network in infectious diseases tied to similar efforts in the G-8 and European Union. And they provided practical suggestions for providing much needed training for health workers and for operating an effective early warning and response program. They emphasized the need to exempt professionally credentialed health workers from the civil service examination that is an ancient burden on anyone entering government service.

The sustainable development plans presented by the Taiwanese were extensive and included a detailed discussion of how Taiwan could reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as plans for restoring degraded lands and cement-lined rivers. The country is building a large, well managed set of national parks and other land protected from damaging forestry and farming practices. The STAG group emphasized the need to build research in many fields into the sustainable development goals and the need to integrate sustainability goals into research and development in a variety of areas – agriculture, new electronic devices (for example, a third of all electronic ballasts are made in Taiwan) and other areas.

I can only hope that the next generation of Taiwanese scientists is as popular on the street as Y.T. Lee. But things look good. The government is committed to a program that ties many of the nation’s aspirations to success in science and technology – a view that seems to be shared by everyone I met. Having released a number of the dead hands that hobbled them in the past, the country seems exhilarated by the opportunities presented by the coming decade and the role science can play in building a better life for themselves. Through their inventions and exports, they’re also looking beyond their borders to build a better world community.

Author’s Note: Henry Kelly is the President of FAS.