Biotechnologies development policy of the government of Taiwan in the 1990-2000s

Development of biotechnologies became one of the priority directions of government science and technology (S&T) policy in Taiwan more than 30 years ago - as early as in 1982 biotechnologies were specified in the second National S&T Development Program as one of the eight major S&T spheres. However, until the second half of the 1990s the industry saw weak development policy. Achievement of the relatively high level of economic development and accumulation of science and technology experience in Taiwan entailed vitali-zation of stimulation policy in the sphere of biotechnologies. Since the middle of the 1990s, governmental agencies have created specialized departments responsible for biotechnology development by means of research infrastructure creation and conduction of key technologies research, cultivation of high-quality personnel. Various biotechnologies development programs were adopted at the national and ministerial level. Besides, such R&D organizations as Institute of Molecular Biology, Pharmaceutical Industry Technology and Development Center, Biomedical Engineering Center, South Taiwan Science Park were established in the late 1990s. The governmental policy of biotechnology development since the 1990s has been performed via several governmental agencies: the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Council of Agriculture, the National Science Council, the Ministry of Education, etc. Under the democratic political regime, biotechnology policy suffers the impact of contradictions of these governmental agencies which try to represent their responsibility area as the most important. On the other hand, institutional pluralism in the sphere of government policy formulation and implementation in the sphere of biotechnologies had a positive effect because by the 2000s Taiwan has not determined its technological and economic advantages in this industry yet. As the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) came to power in 2000, it continued the biotechnology development policy, the national biotech development program was launched in 2002. Implementation included establishment of biotechnology science parks providing their residents with favorable conditions. Within 5 years several specialized science parks were constructed in Taiwan: Biotechnology Plaza in Nankang, Biomedical Park Chupei, Chiayi Herbal Medicine Science Park, etc. In the process of development of biotechnologies, the DDP administration applied the same strategy as KMT government used to develop semiconductor and electronics industries. However, due to several specific features of biotechnologies, the strategy was not as successful as expected. The main reasons of these results include the absence of specific development strategy for biotechnologies, the lack of international S&T support, comparatively weak participation of ITRI, competition between governmental agencies and low cooperation between them.

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