President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of November 3 with a delegation led by Dr. Akira Suzuki, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2010. Apart from praising Dr. Suzuki for his outstanding contributions in chemistry, the president also expressed hope that his visit to Taiwan will help cultivate science educators here and enhance Taiwan's competitiveness in science and technology.
In remarks, President Ma stated that this was Dr. Suzuki's third visit to Taiwan. During his first visit in 2002-2003, he stayed for four months and taught modern organic synthetic chemistry at Academia Sinica and National Taiwan University. This time, the president remarked, Dr. Suzuki has been invited by several universities in central and southern Taiwan to provide lectures. President Ma said he is confident that this will be of considerable assistance to Taiwan's academic community, and especially to young students here.
The president commented that Dr. Suzuki's academic achievements in the field of chemistry have been widely recognized and praised in the international community. In particular, he published the Suzuki reaction in 1979, which paved the way for development of innovative organic synthesis techniques that can produce near-natural substances which in turn can be used for synthetic production of pharmaceuticals as well as electronic and photonic materials. President Ma noted that Dr. Suzuki won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for these achievements.
The president mentioned that over the years, 22 scholars from Japan have been awarded Nobel Prizes for physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace, including five in chemistry since 2000, which highlights the high importance the Japanese government and private sector place on science education as well as research and development. He expressed confidence that Dr. Suzuki's insights on the development of science education and on boosting national science and technology competitiveness will help Taiwan formulate its science education policies.
President Ma told his visitors that Taiwan is lacking in natural resources, but has outstanding talent, and in recent years has fared extremely well in international science competitions. He further stated that Thomas Friedman, a columnist for The New York Times, has praised Taiwan, saying: "They drill their people. They don't drill their ground." The president also said that the government in recent years has actively worked to cultivate R&D talent and promote R&D in various scientific fields.
President Ma then pointed out that the government invests a lot to develop science and technology, and that the budget for spending in this regard has risen by 8% from US$2.86 billion in 2008, when he took office, to US$3.09 billion this year. In addition, the president mentioned, in 2010 he set a goal to boost R&D spending within two years to 3% of GDP. This goal was reached in 2011, and last year R&D spending hit 3.12% of GDP, he said, which is a tangible show of the government's determination to promote scientific research and its firm intention to bolster the R&D abilities of industry here.
President Ma further pointed out that Switzerland's International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in its annual World Competitiveness Yearbook has consistently ranked Taiwan favorably in the areas of R&D and innovation. And in the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Competitiveness Report 2014-2015, which was released in September 2014, Taiwan ranked 10th in the category of innovation out of the 144 countries surveyed. These high rankings show that Taiwan's commitment to R&D and innovation is recognized throughout the world, the president said.
President Ma stressed that the innovative techniques developed by Dr. Suzuki are being applied in the pharmacy and biotechnology sectors, and he noted that biotechnology has been one of the rising industries here. The president said the government hopes that investment in Taiwan's biotech industry will reach US$1.64 billion in 2015, and that the annual revenues of the industry will hit US$16.4 billion by 2020. In addition, he noted, the government promulgated the Act for the Development of Biotech and New Pharmaceuticals Industry in 2007 to promote these two sectors. The government has approved applications from 77 companies for the launch of 186 new drugs, and the president expressed hope that Taiwan can apply the groundbreaking techniques developed by Dr. Suzuki to the development of new drugs, as this would boost the R&D standards and capabilities of Taiwan's biotechnology and pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Also in the delegation were National Taiwan University Professor Luh Tien-Yau (陸天堯) and National Sun Yat-sen University Professor Wu Ming-Jung (吳明忠).