Seminar explores green industrial strategy

This article was written by Francis Li and published by the Taiwan Journal on January 2, 2004. It features a symposium recently held in southern Taiwan about how the nation's industries can work together to reduce waste and pollution and to promote environment-friendly economic activities, or "green industry".

One of the challenges faced by Taiwan's industries is that more countries now are placing restrictions on imported products that cause damage to the environment either because of the materials from which they are made or because of their manufacturing processes. For example, electronic products exported to Europe need to meet their "green" standards. The number of applications for International Standards Organization (ISO) certification of products and production processes as environmentally responsible is also growing.

These and other issues were discussed at the symposium, whose participants included government officials, academics and representatives from the industrial sector. The symposium was co-organized by the Presidential Advisory Council for Science and Technology, the Tainan County Government, and the Tainan Science-based Industrial Park Administration.