President 
Lai Ching-te said at the opening of the fifth Asia-Pacific Sustainability Expo on August 27 that Taiwan should be a partner in the region's sustainable development and help drive the global effort. The combined opening and awards ceremony at the Taipei World Trade Center, where Lai was accompanied by National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu, was held that morning, Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA) reported.
Taiwan has the strength of its technology and industry, democratic resilience and cross-disciplinary innovation, Lai said, and this year's theme of "resilience, innovation and shared prosperity" names the forces carrying it toward sustainability, linking it to the Asia-Pacific and contributing to the world. Four years ago, at the first expo, he had urged central and local government, business and academia to work on sustainability together. With those efforts now bearing fruit, the task was to act jointly and take Taiwan's experience to the world, he said.
On resilience, Lai said Taiwan had to hold steady amid extreme weather, geopolitics, the energy transition and the reorganisation of global supply chains. He chaired a meeting of the National Climate Change Response Committee in July, and a national urban forest plan is expected by the end of this year to make urban forests a foundation of city resilience, he said. On innovation, he said Taiwan's world-class semiconductor, information and communications and precision manufacturing industries are advantages Taiwan must turn into global competitiveness in the net-zero era, and that the carbon fee system completed its first filing and payment this year, a milestone for carbon pricing in Taiwan.
On shared prosperity, Lai said the government is pushing a revitalisation programme for small, medium and micro enterprises, budgeting more than NT$10 billion for it each year, and will next use an eight-year, NT$100 billion fund to help them through digital and net-zero transitions. The government would stand with industry, workers and society so that no one is left behind in the transition, CNA reported him as saying. He also said the government was willing to share technology and experience with Pacific allies and like-minded countries, and to keep acting as a provider of solutions and a force for good in the world.
Figures referenced: Lai Ching-te. — JudgeMarket.
