Taiwan executives take development training

About 50 senior civil servants from Taiwan enthusiastically participated in intensive strategic planning training at the Sanford Institute's Center for International Development Research (CIDR) this spring. CIDR organized the Executive Development Program at the request of the Taiwanese authorities for the second consecutive year. Two groups of about 25 executives each participated in the sessions on how to apply strategic planning to promote Taiwan's international competitiveness.

The study program included field visits to N.C. state government agencies such as the Office of Information Technology Services, the Commerce Department, and the Biotechnology Center, as well as to the Council for Entrepreneurial Development - a non-governmental organization that promotes fast-growing high-tech enterprises.

Participants learned that a country's competitiveness is not exclusively related to its capacity to compete and export, but also to its capacity to cooperate -- as competitors often are also importers. Competitiveness would thus be a broad concept involving both sound national economic and financial management (e.g. to ensure the country's attractiveness to foreign investors) and consideration of non-economic factors such as international military and political alliances, and the country's environmental and/or cultural leadership, said Francis Lethem, director of graduate studies for CIDR. In addition, achieving a country's objective of competitiveness should not have to be at the expense of other objectives and values , he said, such as the strength and equity of social structures, the protection of environmental assets, or political stability.

Participants gave special attention to the management of knowledge, including organizational design and human resources management, as a way to make best use of local capabilities and knowledge, avoid the risk of a brain drain, and draw on the potential contributions of overseas nationals. They also focused on the need to optimize the role of government in the management of the economy. The training stressed that the concept of competitiveness required a holistic approach that would promote a society's internal and external dynamism, creativity and innovation, as well as its caring for the welfare of its citizens.