Latvia-Lithuania-Taiwan tech cooperation conference held in Taipei

Taipei, Oct. 8 (CNA) An annual Latvia-Lithuania-Taiwan trilateral science and technology cooperation conference was held in Taipei on Tuesday to evaluate the results of the tripartite cooperation program in the field, according to Taiwan's National Science and Technology Council (NSTC).

Speaking at the opening ceremony Tuesday, NSTC Deputy Minister Chen Bing-yu (陳炳宇) said more than 70 trilateral research projects have been funded under the cooperation program to date and new projects would be selected during the conference.

At the same time, Chen said, a regular dialogue mechanism has been established through the annual meeting enabling science and technology officials from the three countries to discuss the policies related to the development of science and technology in their countries and their status.

The tripartite cooperation started in 2000 when Taiwan and the two countries' education, science and technology authorities signed a cooperation program to set up a common fund to subsidize trilateral projects, the NTSC said in a statement issued Tuesday.

Since 2002, the three countries have taken turns hosting the annual conference in their capital cities, it said.

This year's conference held in Taipei was co-hosted by Chen, Jānis Paiders, deputy state secretary for Human Capital, Science and Innovation Development in Latvia's Ministry of Education and Science, and Laima Taparauskienė, director of the Lithuania Department of Higher Education, Science and Technology.

In addition to attending the annual conference, the delegations from Latvia and Lithuania will also visit the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education to discuss the cultivation of semiconductor talent and other issues, the NSTC statement said.

They will also visit National Taiwan University to discuss potential cooperation on a bachelor's degree program in semiconductors and visit the Taiwan Semiconductor Research Institute and Taiwan Space Agency in the Hsinchu Science Park to learn more about technology development in Taiwan.