Hsinchu, Oct. 27 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian said Monday that the Republic of China hopes to forge closer cooperative relations with all Asian countries for the mutual benefit of all.
Addressing the opening of the seventh annual meeting of the Asian Science Parks Association (ASPA) at the government-funded Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) , Chen said regional economic integration has become a prevailing world trend.
In the face of this wave of integration, Chen said, the ROC will make every possible effort to develop constructive interaction with all Asian countries.
Noting that Taiwan sits on a strategic location between Northeast and Southeast Asia and ranks among the world's top four exporters of high-tech products, Chen said his administration will do its utmost to forge closer ties with its Asian neighbors based on the existing frameworks.
As research and innovation hold the key to high-tech industrial development, Chen went on, Taiwan has set up many research laboratories to encourage the development of innovative technologies and help aspiring businessmen to launch high-tech ventures.
These innovative centers, plus the island's three core science-based industrial parks in Hsinchu, Taichung and Tainan, have formed a "technology corridor" in western Taiwan that will play the role of locomotive to turn Taiwan into a "green silicon island," home to environmentally friendly high-tech industries, Chen said.
He lauded the ITRI for its contributions that have helped nurture many new high-tech companies on the island over the past seven years. "Since the ITRI set up an open laboratory seven years ago, it has successfully helped create 110 high-tech firms, with an accumulated paid-in capital of NT$41 billion, " Chen noted, adding that the ITRI is the most suitable organization to represent Taiwan in organizing the 2003 ASPA annual conference.