TAIPEI: The Legislative Yuan has cut the budget for the government's fund for science and technology development for 2010, saying the fund has achieved low efficiency in terms of putting scientific research into applications.

Members of the Legislative Yuan's Education and Culture Committee motioned yesterday to have NT$1.55 billion ($47.94 million) of the government sci-tech development fund frozen, while pruning NT$9 million from the budget.

The legislators also instructed the NSC to come up with a new written report within two months on the goals that academic and industrial cooperation can expect to achieve in the coming year.

A number of the legislators complained that the NSC had failed to help turn patented inventions or technologies into products or business opportunities.

Meanwhile, they went on, despite the fact that its businesses own many patent rights, Taiwan has seen its technology trade ratio (the ratio of technology exported to technology imported) at lows of 0.17 percent, 0.17 percent, 0.23 percent and 0.29 percent, in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2007, respectively. The ratio for 2006 was not calculated.

Although the government had funneled huge amounts of money into government-sanctioned research projects, they noted, those projects were too academic or were mostly research papers for academic conferences only.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 11/13/2009 page2)