May 15, 2017
No.071
An 11-member delegation led by Arnošt Marks, deputy vice prime minister of the Czech Republic, will visit Taiwan from May 15 to 20 at the invitation of the Republic of China government.
The purpose of the visit is to promote bilateral exchanges in green energy, biomedicine and the management of science and technology-related policy, as well as kick start a new phase of engagement that will see substantial cooperation in innovative scientific and technological research and development.
Deputy Vice Prime Minister Marks will join Taiwanese counterparts in cohosting the launch ceremony of the Fifth Taiwan-Czech Technology Days on May 16. His delegation will also attend two other opening ceremonies, the Taiwan-Czech Academia-Industry Cooperation Seminar and the National Central Library’s Photogenic Science 2017 Exhibition, as well as attend two receptions hosted by Minister of Foreign Affairs David Tawei Lee and Minister of Science and Technology Chen Liang-gee. In addition to visiting a number of important sites of cultural and economic significance, members of the delegation will also call on President of Academia Sinica James C. Liao, Minister of Culture Cheng Li-chun and Deputy Mayor of Tainan City Wu Tsung-jung.
Cohosted by Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Economic Affairs, and the Czech Republic’s Office of the Government, this year’s Fifth Taiwan-Czech Technology Days has been organized with the assistance of Academia Sinica, the Industrial Technology Research Institute, and National Tsing Hua University and National Cheng Kung University.
The Czech Republic is one of Taiwan’s key scientific research and cooperation partners in Central and Eastern Europe, with the two countries taking turns in hosting each year’s Taiwan-Czech Technology Days activities. The Ministry of Science and Technology and the Czech Academy of Sciences also signed a cooperation agreement in June 2016 in the Czech Republic designed to facilitate information sharing, knowledge transfer and joint research, as well as establish a cooperative platform through which to jointly gain access to the EU’s scientific research programs.
Taiwan and the Czech Republic share the core values of freedom, democracy and respect for human rights, and the two countries have signed agreements and memoranda of understanding in such areas as aviation rights, working holidays, education, intellectual property rights, telecommunications, nuclear power and e-government, laying the foundation for further bilateral cooperation. To date, a number of Taiwanese ICT enterprises have invested in the Czech Republic, creating around 23,000 job opportunities in their host country. To create a win-win situation for both countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue to promote substantial bilateral cooperation and exchange in such areas as trade and economics, culture and education, and science and technology.
Other delegation members include such scholars and experts as Petr Dvořák, first vice chairman of research at the Czech Republic’s Development Council; Director Jiří Plešek and Deputy Director Miroslav Chomát of the Czech Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Thermomechanics; Petr Očko, chairman of the Technological Agency of the Czech Republic; Pavel Martásek, director of the Czech Biotechnology and Biomedicine Center; and Aleš Hampl, vice-dean for research at Masaryk University’s Faculty of Medicine in Brno. (E)