Taipei, Nov. 12 (CNA) Taiwan and Canada renewed a science and technology Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Monday for an additional five years of bilateral collaboration, hoping to strengthen a relationship that will result in future scientific, technological and commercial gains.
The MOU extension, which will run 2007-2012, was jointly signed by Ron MacIntosh, Director of the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei (CTOT) and Dr. Pierre Coulombe, President of National Research Council (NRC) Canada along with their Taiwanese counterparts: David Lee, Representative of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Canada, and Minister of National Science Council (NSC) Chen Chien-jen.
"The NSC and NRC have made significant commitments to building bilateral science and technology cooperation. The collaboration between the two organizations is expanding in a productive and rapid manner, " Chen said in the signing ceremony.
Taiwan has been collaborating with Canada on energy, health and the environment and working on fields such as fuel cells, biomass, solar, wind and nuclear energies, biophotonics and medicine, Chen said. Most of these technologies, he added, aim at reducing Taiwan's carbon dioxide emissions.
In 1997, the NSC and NRC formally inaugurated the first MOU, which was extended for another five years in 2002.
The relationship between Canada and Taiwan is expanding on all fronts, MacIntosh said, noting that both sides have extended MOUs on education and information and communication technology (ICT) earlier this year. Since 1997, bilateral trade has grown by 30 percent, he said.
Premier Chang Chun-hsiung was also impressed by the collaboration, saying that Taiwan and Canada have worked together over the past 10 years and produced research results that have benefited both countries.
The MOU signing was held in conjunction with the 2007 Canada-Taiwan Innovation Week, which included a series of workshops and speeches by Dr. Arthur Carty, National Science Advisor to the Government of Canada, at universities in Taipei, Hsinchu and Tainan.