President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of July 5 with participants who represented Taiwan at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) 2012. The president applauded the outstanding performance of the group at this year's science fair and reiterated that the government will continue to increase funding for education. He also explained that the government will offer incentives for more foreign students to study in Taiwan while promoting initiatives for students to study overseas. All of these measures will help to further enhance the nation's competitiveness, he said.
In remarks, the president stated that the National Taiwan Science Education Center selected eight projects by 12 students to represent Taiwan in this year's Intel ISEF. Over 1,500 students from 70 countries around the world competed in the event. Two projects from Taiwan were Grand Award winners, while four were winners of the Special Award. Noting that Intel, the K. T. Li Foundation for the Development of Science and Technology, and the GFC Foundation are among the organizations that provide strong support for this event, the president thanked these bodies for helping to make the event a success.
President Ma emphasized that investment in education is an investment in the future of young people. Consequently, over the past four years the government has each year invested NT$18 billion in education despite the economic difficulties facing the nation, and expenditures continue to increase, he said. At the same time, in order to encourage students to engage in advanced studies overseas, the Ministry of Education has approved a program under which financial assistance will be provided to over 100 Ph.D. students and post-doctor researchers students over the next three years to study at the world's top 30 universities, which will bolster the nation's foundation for scientific development and help to cultivate internationally competitive talent.
President Ma stated that New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman previously praised the progress of Taiwan in the areas of science, technology, and education, writing that: "They drill their people. They don't drill their ground." Taiwan has achieved this, said the president, through the joint efforts of its people and the contributions made by Taiwan's business and industrial community to scientific research and the cultivation of talent. For instance, Quanta Computer co-founder and vice chairman Chee-Chun Leung (梁次震) recently donated NT$570 million to National Taiwan University to serve as an endowment for the school's Leung Center for Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics. This is a big boost to the development of basic science here, the president said, and marks the largest donation ever made to support international astrophysics research.
The president also pointed to the research into coronaviruses done by Michael M. C. Lai's (賴明詔), an academician at the Academia Sinica. He stressed that Dr. Lai has gone quietly about his research for over a decade, but the importance of his work came dramatically to the fore during the outbreak of SARS here several years ago. President Ma said that scientific research can be a lonely pursuit, but as long as one follows through and is not afraid of setbacks, success will come in the end. The president said that Taiwan is at the cutting edge of research in medicine, astronomy, and science right alongside other advanced nations, but the continued efforts of talented researchers are still needed to further enhance the nation's competitiveness.
Meanwhile, the president also encouraged the visiting students to cultivate an international perspective. He said that the government has signed working holiday agreements with Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Germany, and the UK to encourage young people between the ages of 18 and 30 to go overseas to work and experience different lifestyles and cultures. At the same time, he said, Taiwan is actively promoting a policy of internationalizing its campuses by allowing more students from overseas to study here. At present, foreign students now comprise 4.4% of all students on Taiwan's campuses in comparison with just 2.5% in 2008, he said. President Ma furthermore explained that the government hopes to raise this figure to 10% by the year 2020, thereby providing more opportunities for interaction between students from Taiwan and abroad. This interaction will help to cultivate empathy and foster a better ability to put oneself in another's shoes and engage in fact-driven thinking. In addition, he said, students will benefit from the mutual encouragement, competition, and cooperation that take place between them and their foreign peers.
Attending the meeting were National Taiwan Science Education Center Director-general Chu Nan-Shyan (朱楠賢), Intel Taiwan Country Manager Jason L. S. Chen (陳立生), K. T. Li Foundation for the Development of Science and Technology Secretary-General Chi-Chao Wan (萬其超), GFC Foundation CEO Tang Chiu-ling (唐秋鈴), and representatives of students who had attended the science fair. The group was accompanied to the Presidential Office by Minister of Education Chiang Wei-ling (蔣偉寧) to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting was Deputy Secretary-General to the President Hsiung Kuang-hua (熊光華).