President Lee Teng-hui this morning met with Microsoft Corporation Chairman Bill Gates who was visiting Taiwan to attend a symposium on digital nervous system, which is co-organized by Microsoft Corporation and the ROC Executive Yuans National Information Infrastructure task force.
President Lee noted that, in the future information society in which brain is mightier than muscle, a country and all its enterprises, must have a full grasp of information, process it rapidly, and make proper responses quickly, in order to maintain a competitive advantage.
President Lee also pointed out that the successful development of digital nervous system will be a big step forward for information technology, and that the system will help governments and industries sharpen their competitive edge. "Therefore, the symposium is quite significant", said the President, adding that he had great expectation to its outcome.
Looking forward to the research result of the promising digital nervous system, Mr. Gates believes that even a little progress in this respect will be a breakthrough in the field of information technology. He said he is very glad to have this opportunity to co-organize this symposium with the government of the Republic of China.
Mr. Gates also pointed out that, although modern people enjoy the material civilization, many have latent worries about the uncertainty of the future, and that the government of every country has the responsibility of developing advanced technologies to resolve problems for its people and so that they can live more peacefully.
President Lee said that we can make use of computer science to predict the risks in the future and take precaution against the possible challenges. "This is also a subject worthy of careful study for information industries", he suggested.
Mr. Gates and his colleagues came to the Office of the President for the meeting. Also present were Dr. Ding Mou-shih, secretary-general of the ROC National Security Council, and Dr. Su Chi, deputy secretary-general to the President.