Dr. Hartwell, Mrs. Hartwell, Dr. Chen, Minister Tsai, distinguished guests:
Good afternoon.
First of all, on behalf of the government and people of Republic of China, I would like to extend my most sincere welcome to Dr. Hartwell, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2001.
Dr. Hartwell is a leading scholar in genetics research, who has been studying the yeast cell for more than 35 years and identified the genes that control cell division and cell cycle. He is now the president and director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, one of the world's top cancer research centers. Dr. Hartwell's excellence lies in both his outstanding scientific research as well as the successful application of the research outcome with the advance of biotechnology. He is indeed a world-class scientist in oncology and genome sciences. I must congratulate and commend you, Dr. Hartwell, for your remarkable achievements and your contributions to the advancement of cancer research and clinical care.
In the past two decades, Taiwan has experienced the rapid development of information technology and computer related industries, which has led to further economic success. Now we have entered the 21st century, a century of biotechnology, Taiwan is very keen on making ourselves one of the leading expert in this field.
I have attached great importance to biotechnology and oncology research, because I believe both of them are vital elements for Taiwan's economic development and the health of our nation. Therefore, our government has gathered talents and expertise at home and from abroad to formulate policies for developing biotechnology. Last year, the administration launched a national project on genome medical research. In our 6-year national development plan, known as "Challenge 2008", we have listed biotechnology, nano-technology, system-on-chip, and telecommunication as our prioritized areas for development. These were aimed at promoting the competitiveness of Taiwan's biotechnology internationally.
Dr. Hartwell's visit to Taiwan was initiated and organized by Dr. Chen, Dean of the Medical School at the National Taiwan University with the hope that your coming here will provide an excellent opportunity for advancing the bilateral cooperation between your respectable institute, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute and Taiwan's genome and cancer research institutes. The area of cooperation would cover cancer research and clinical care, fundamental biological research, as well as the research and development of biotechnology. You have visited the Medical School of the National Taiwan University, Academia Sinica, National Health Research Institute and other related institutes. I hope that with your expertise and knowledge, as well as your understanding of the situation in Taiwan, you could offer us some valuable advice and assistance so that we can upgrade ourselves in this field.
Lastly, I would like to extend my appreciation and gratitude to Dr. Hartwell. I sincerely hope that we will establish positive, active and reciprocal collaboration with your insititution. In addition, I would like to thank Minister Tsai and Dr. Chen for the effort they have made for inviting Dr. Hartwell to Taiwan and organizing his public seminar and visits. I would like to wish Dr. Hartwell every success and may you enjoy your stay in Taiwan. I also wish everyone good health and happiness. Thank you very much.