President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of March 1 with the team that represented the ROC at the 2012 International Junior Science Olympiad (IJSO). The president praised the outstanding achievements of the students, as well as the efforts and dedication of their advising instructors, and called on the students to keep working hard to win distinction for the nation and forge a bright future for themselves.
In remarks, the president first stated that a team from the ROC has participated in each of the nine IJSO competitions held so far, putting in an outstanding performance each year. The president said that this marks the fifth time he has met with a delegation of team members who won medals at the competition. The most recent IJSO edition was held in Iran, where 147 students from 30 nations took part. The delegation from the ROC consisted of six students, and in aggregate they won six gold medals and three bronze medals, thus taking first place in the medal count. This marked the fifth time that a team from the ROC came away as the champion, he noted. The president said he was pleased that one of the team members, Chang Lai-he (張賴和), won "the overall winner" award, given to the student with the highest composite score.
Remarking that Taiwan has limited natural resources, President Ma pointed to comments made by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, the author of The World Is Flat and Hot, Flat, and Crowded, who said that Taiwan's most precious resource is its "brain power." The government is making every effort to develop human resources, the president said, adding that science education is one of the focal points of this initiative. The president explained that six years ago when he first ran for the presidency, his platform called for the ROC's R&D spending to be at least 3% of GDP. President Ma noted that Taiwan has now reached that goal.
The president also remarked that the performance of students from the ROC in these types of international competitions shows that Taiwan provides quite a strong foundation in science education at the secondary school level. Furthermore, the president explained, in the Knowledge Economy Index 2012 Rankings released by the World Bank, Taiwan was ranked 13th among the 146 nations surveyed, and first in Asia ahead of Hong Kong (18th), Japan (22nd), Singapore (23rd), and Korea (29th). The president said this also points to the well-rounded educational foundation provided by Taiwan, and shows that its efforts and funding in the area of education have paid off. President Ma pledged that the government in the future will continue to promote educational reform.
President Ma mentioned that Taiwan produces many highly competitive goods that sell well throughout the world. However, the nation still relies on overseas sources for critical components used in some of these products, he said. At the same time, even though the research and development community in Taiwan has chalked up considerable successes, Taiwan still spends over US$5 billion each year purchasing patents from overseas, which shows that Taiwan needs to work on commercializing its inventions and patents. This is an important task for the government, he noted. The president also said that in recent years the government has brought together the Industrial Technology Research Institute and colleges and universities throughout Taiwan in jointly planning the development of 10 fundamental industrial technologies. Displays and lighting, all-electric metropolitan transportation, key semiconductor manufacturing technologies, high-end medical devices, and communication systems have been pegged as the areas of focus in the preliminary stage, he remarked.
Lastly, the president reiterated his admiration for the outstanding showing of the students in this competition and called on them not only to continue pursuing their science interests, but also to absorb knowledge from many other disciplines, citing the importance of a strong grounding in the "five types of education," namely moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and social. He said he hopes that, under the instruction of their teachers, these students will continue to be successful and advance.
The following students on the ROC team at the 2012 IJSO won medals: Chang Lai-he, Yang Zhi-xiang (楊智翔), Yang Zhe-ning (楊哲寧), Lai Guan-wei (賴冠瑋), Cai Kun-lin (蔡昆霖), and Xu Nai-wei (許乃偉). The group was accompanied to the Presidential Office by Deputy Education Minister Chen I-hsing (陳益興) to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting was Deputy Secretary-General to the President Hsiung Kuang-hua (熊光華).