2.2.1 The National Technological System in Taiwan
Responsibility for implementing the development of science and technology is divided among various government agencies in the R.O.C. Beneath the Office of the President is the Academia Sinica, and beneath the Executive Yuan are the National Science Council (NSC) and various other agencies: Ministry of Education (MOE), Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC), Atomic Energy Council (AEC), Department of Health (DOH), and Environmental Protection Administration (EPA). The Executive Yuan has also established the Science and Technology Advisory Group, which is directed by the Executive Yuan minister responsible for matters pertaining to science and technology. The Science and Technology Advisory Group meet during regular Science and Technology Advisory Conferences. In the case of special tasks that cross
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the boundaries of individual agencies, when necessary the Executive Yuan premier may direct the minister in charge of science and technology to coordinate inter-agency implementation through a special project team or task force.
The National Science Council Board Meeting is attended by the heads of agencies, whose scope includes scientific and technological matters (including the MOE, MOEA, MOTC, AEC, Council of Agriculture (COA), DOH, and EPA), the Executive Yuan minister in charge of matters pertaining to science and technology, the president of the Academia Sinica, the secretary-general of the Executive Yuan, the director general of the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics, and various scholars and experts (refer to the dotted lines in Figure 2-2.). The Taiwan's science and technology development framework operates according to the principle of comprehensive planning and a division of labour. All agencies are responsible for internal planning; the formulation of inter-agency science-technology policies, the deliberation of major national projects, and the management and allocation of the national budget for science and technology are to be carried out in conjunction with meetings of the National Science Council Board(Lee & von Tunzelmann, 2005). In order to develop science and technology(S&T), the first National S&T Conference was held in 1976 by Applied Technology Research Development Goup. However, the seconed National S&T Conference was reorganized by NSC in 1982, and has been held every four years to plan national science and technology development, review the current state of national science and technology development and provide concrete recommendations that address the future challenges and prospects. Until now, the eighth National S&T Conference was held in 2009 and takes the biopharmaceutical industry as one of the developing industries for the coming years.
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Figure 2- 2 Taiwan's Organizational Framework for the Development of Science and Technology
The concept of policy making as a dynamic process implies that an analysis of official policy content as embodied in laws and other formal texts should be supplemented by an analysis of all the stages of the corresponding policy process including agenda setting, policy formulation, legitimating, adoption, implementation, and evaluation (Cherp and Antypas, 2003). Interaction within policy networks can be regard as a continuous process of transformation in which actors negotiate the
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definition and content of each others’ interests, and try to link the interests of other projects they themselves want to carry out (Latour, 1987). Put in another way, each stage of a policy process is seen as a contestation between a variety of actors with disparate conceptions of their own interests and in varying modes of relationship to one another.
To make effective use of limited resources during science and technology development, the government has not only established science and development policy and development points but also does assessments of mid to long-term projects under planning and implementation and performance evaluations following the completion of R&D work; refer to Figure 2-3.
Figure 2- 3 Science Planning and Evaluation System of Taiwan
The biopharmaceutical industry can be defined as a complex of processes, operations and organizations involved in the discovery, development and manufacture of drugs and medication(Shah, 2004). Acording to the National Science and Technology Program for Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals (NSTPBP), every stage of the biopharmaceutical industrial value chain accompany with different agencies to cooperate and develop the biopharmaceutical industry. At the stage of Discovery,
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except the official authority, NSC, the Academia Sinica, colleages and research agencies would cooperate together at the former stage of the biopharmaceutical value chain. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Department of Health are the main authoritative departments for the stages of clinical trial, production and marketing, refer to Figure 2-4.
Discovery Pre-Clinical
Testing Phase I Phase II Phase III NDA &
Approval
Post Marketing
Figure 2- 4 Policy Discourse of Biopharmaceutical Industry Value Chain
As we have mention above, Taiwan listed the biotechnology industry as the country’s key technology in the 1980s, and started to promote development of the biotechnology industry. In order to implement government policy for developing the biotechnology industry and consolidate R&D foundation, the “Strengthening Biotechnology Industry Promotion Program” was formulated in 1995. This program has been used as the principle for promoting development of the biotechnology industry for intergrating resources of various ministries and commissions and draft projects for developing the industry in a planned way. In 2002, the government took the biotechnology industry as one of Two Trillions & Twin Stars industries. In 2004, the Biotechnology Industry Strategy Advisory Committee was established by
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Executive Yuan, which would be held every year to discuss the developmental visions of the national biotechnology industry policy council and to make recommendations.
Until 2007, the Executive Yuan pointed out tha the prospected investment object in biotechnology field is focused on biopharmaceutical industry.
Until now, the plans of science and technology development of the biopharmaceuticals industry as executed by the various commissions and agencies have exhibited some achievements: Building an international standard biological resources center, providing various biological resources from various sources of Taiwan information and relevant R&D technology platform, building biopharmaceutical pioneering factory, integrating domestic optoelectronics and medical technology, building the protein drug biological safety testing system and protein drug biological and chemical properties analysis technology platform. The Bureau of Industry, MOEA, is responsible for the promotion of two projects including the Vaccine Industry Root-Taking Project and Biotechnology Industry Development and Investment Cooperation Promotion Project. The Medium and Small Business division, MOEA, is responsible for the Biotechnology Industry Cluster Incubation Promotion project.