staff writer
Democratic Progressive Party Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen discussed her dream to promote Taiwan’s biotechnology industry with American Institute in Taiwan Director Stephen Young after leaving the Cabinet in 2007, reports said yesterday.
Prosecutors started investigating the Yu Chang Biologics Co. case this week after accusations from the ruling Kuomintang that Tsai might have been guilty of conflict of interest by approving government investment in the company when she knew she would become the company’s chairwoman.
Tsai denies the allegations, saying she was not involved in the investment project while she was vice premier and was only invited by scientists to join Yu Chang months after leaving government.
A recent Chinese-language book titled ‘WikiLeaks Taiwan’ says that Tsai had a long discussion with Young after she left government. She told him how she felt it was important to have legislation giving tax incentives and other protection measures to biotechnology research and technology.
A law governing the production of new drugs by the biotechnology sector passed in June 2007 was largely her work, Tsai reportedly told Young. She looked at US legislation from the 1990s and worked out a new version with Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng, the book said.
According to the book, Tsai’s key ally was Academia Sinica President Wong Chi-huey, reportedly one of the scientists who invited her to become Yu Chang Chairwoman. AIT described the conversation between Tsai and Young as the most honest and open in ten years. She told Young she was planning to meet with leading scientists and entrepreneurs in the biotechnology sector during a visit to the United States later that year.
Tsai said the most important point was that Taiwan’s biotech sector should be able to produce drugs that were marketable overseas, according to the book.
The DPP has strongly denied allegations that Tsai was already in charge of the government’s biotech efforts when she approved the investment. The Council for Economic Planning and Development, which also supervises the National Development Fund, was in charge, the DPP said, adding that Tsai had no inkling at the time that she once would chair a biotechnology firm.
The book quotes AIT records as saying that Tsai told Young that during her time as vice premier, she cooperated with the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the National Science Council and the Academia Sinica to promote Taiwan’s biotech sector.
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