President Chen Shui-bian attended the Ninth National Forum and the49th Academic Award presentation ceremony and gave a speech today.
A synopsis of the President's address is as follows:
The National Forum is the highest award offered by the Ministry of Education and the Academic Award is the oldest honor awarded for academic excellence in the nation. These events were created to recognize awardees for their scholarly achievements and contributions and to make known their wisdom and knowledge. Hosts of the National Forum are all leading members of the academic community. We hope that after winning the honor as a participant in the National Forum, they would make use of their academic achievement to give guidance to the students to further exploit the realm of their studies.
In addition, the Academic Award is a means to reward the outstanding results made possible by a lifetime of scholarly research. A-Bian deeply believes that the Academic Award winners are not only the top-level scholars advocating academic advancement and upgrade who have demonstrated professionalism in research, but they are also models for the future generation.
We look forward to each and every National Forum and Academic Award winners to continue to contribute to the advancement of academic refinement. In a new era, knowledge truly is power, and knowledge and creativity are keys to international competitiveness. Every award winner present has demonstrated scholarly power, surpassing national barriers to allow Taiwan to gain world admiration. A-Bian expects members of the academic community to work together to introduce innovation and applications of their studies to better the academic and cultural environment, allowing their knowledge to have an impact on every corner of society.