ABSTRACT
This essay attempts to put Taiwan’s ‘knowledge economy’ into historical
perspective by examining long-term, largely state-sponsored strategies for
improving human resources. It focuses, in particular, on efforts in the 1960s
and 1970s to implement manpower development plans, improve science
education and promote better scientific and technical (S&T) research and
development (R&D). It argues that these early and long-term efforts to
improve Taiwan’s S&T human resources are a fundamental and significant
reason for Taiwan’s emergence as a player in the international knowledge economy of the 1990s and in the current decade. Without this foundation,
the information technology (IT) sector – the core of Taiwan’s knowledge
economy – would probably not have grown to the extent that it has. It fur-
ther observes that, although the state gradually (beginning in the late 1960s)
took an interest in the development of S&T as part of its overall develop-
ment scheme, most initiatives along these lines came from outside the state,
and most of these early initiatives were heavily influenced by US and
UNESCO models.2 We can therefore view the early stages of the development of Taiwan’s knowledge economy as a successful implementation of
models proposed by international agencies and foreign governments. Tai-
wan’s ability to implement these models, however, was to a very large extent
influenced by its own particular circumstances in the 1950s and 60s. In what
ways, then, might Taiwan itself serve as a model for others?
