Taiwan’s economic development faces challenges: Scholar

Taipei, July 3 (CNA) Taiwan’s economic development faces three major challenges – talent shortage, lack of technology innovation and lack of interaction between industry and scientific research, a local scholar said Tuesday.

Wong Chi-huey, president of Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s top research institute, said during a biennial meeting ofthe institute that Taiwan’s economic development challenges are mainly caused by government policies that have resulted in serious imbalances in supply and demand of human resources, over-concentration on certain fields and the failure of the country’s scientific research to meet industrydemands.

For example, a high proportion of Taiwan’s scientific technology research projects follow a “free research model” in which academics come up with questions, make proposals and solve issues unrelatedto industry demands, said Wong.

He said research mechanisms should be “problem-oriented” and should allow industries and academics to cooperate.

Although many Taiwan inventions have received awards at internationally renowned invention fairs, a lot of these inventions have never made it to market, Wong noted.

He said that research and development results need to betransformed into commercial value.

The government, he continued, should establish regulations that encourage academics to cooperate with industry.

While the government encourages technological innovation, manyacademics are discouraged from engaging in risky work because Taiwan society has a very negative perspective of failure, Wong said, adding that the government should create an open environment that accepts different opinions and allows room for failure. By Chen Chih-chung and C.J.Lin)

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Category: Taiwan