Taiwanese-German Association for Economic and Social Research

To summarise, the objectives of the Association are twofold:

Strengthening the research collaboration between Germany and Taiwan

Providing policy advice in the field of agricultural and rural development

Aims of the Association

With respect to research collaboration the Association is actively promoting joint research projects, i.e. research projects designed and implemented jointly by German and Taiwanese researchers. This implies not only the execution of scientific research studies between German and Taiwanese research institutes, but also the exchange of master and PhD students. In addition, the Association is encouraging the organisation of specialised study trips of student groups in the respective partner country.

The topics which are in need for advice are identified by the Council of Agriculture in Taipei. Each year these topics are published and open for tender for Taiwanese research institutes and professors. The specific subject matters refer primarily to assessments of German and European experiences concerning actual problems of agricultural and rural development in Taiwan. The focus of each topic will be discussed and might be further specified at the annual joint board meetings. At these meetings the researcher responsible for each topic will be selected. Similarly, a German cooperation partner will be identified. In general, a topic will be analysed within a period of 10 – 12 months. This time span can be seen as relatively too short in order to analyse any research topic in more detail. On the other side, these short-term projects offer the opportunity to enter more medium to long-term oriented research co-operations.

Researchers are required to write up their findings in Chinese as well as in English language. With respect to viable research collaboration, these reports are definitely not the final objective. It is rather aimed at elaborating and finalising joint articles for publication in professional journals. Both, Taiwanese and German researchers are evaluated to a large extent whether they publish in professional journals and build up an international reputation.

Not only the Council of Agriculture but also other organisations and institutions have been advised about specific issues. During the last years, relevant issues have been covered, like e.g. marketing of agricultural commodities, agricultural organisations, rural financial systems and rural development planning. Usually, these analyses are documented in reports.

Tasks of the Association:

Due to the impressive economic development of Taiwan and the corresponding implications on the role of agriculture in economy and society, the orientation of the working programme of the Association has constantly changed over time. Within less than four decades Taiwan developed from an agricultural economy and society into an industrialised one. The admittance to and joining of the WTO in 2002 have acknowledged this development impressively. The impact of this rapid economic change on agriculture and environment requires careful scientific analyses to help in deciding how to design future policies. Since Germany, which as a member of the EU has corresponding experience in various sectors as a result of comparable structural changes, it is constantly attempted in actual collaboration to use this experience in the interest of learning processes for the orientation of policy conceptions in Taiwan.

The Taiwanese-German collaboration has thus far been expressed in regular and intensive exchange of professors, lecturers, PhD. and master students, in the assistance of visiting delegations from Taiwan and the joint execution of seminars, which deal with a whole range of topics, like agriculture, environment, rural development and rural structural planning. These activities are, in general, organised or supported by the Association itself.

For this reason the Association prepares visiting programmes and welcomes about 5 – 8 delegations from Taiwan annually. These delegations usually stay for short-term visits, i.e. about 1 – 2 weeks, but some stay for longer periods. The objective of these visits is essentially to establish professional and personal contacts with German organisations, experts and counterparts, to gather data material and background information and to compare notes. At the forefront are topics such as, for example, in the area of markets, the EU agricultural and foreign-trade policy, the importance of cooperatives in the agricultural and food economy, or problems of rural land use planning in densely populated areas. The Taiwanese visitors take the opportunity to learn from the German experience and apply their findings, to the degree that these can be transferred, in Taiwan. The delegations assisted thus far especially come from the following organisations:

Universities and other research facilities
Academia Sinica
Council of Agriculture and other government agencies
Cooperatives and Farmers’ Associations
Agricultural production, sales and credit cooperatives

In the area of joint research, the collaboration deals with a broad spectrum of individual topics which can be summarised in the following headings:

1. Land Use

Issues relating to land use, especially in the area of planning, land use structure and the transfer of land with respect to the development of the agrarian structure stand at the forefront of studies.

2. Consequences of Macro-economic Development for rural Areas

Taiwan experienced a very rapid industrialisation since the early 1960s. The research groups involved on the German and Taiwanese sides look primarily at the impact of regional industrialisation programmes in densely populated areas on the agricultural sector. Similarly, the conception of an agrarian social policy in support of a declining and ageing agricultural population is analysed.

3. Domestic and foreign Trade as well as Marketing in the Agricultural Sector

As a decision-making aid for the Council of Agriculture, the applicability of marketing boards on selected agricultural markets and the influence of economic growth on consumer and nutrition behaviour with respect to changes in marketing structures have been analysed. Marketing strategies have been developed in important product markets to promote foreign trade.

4. Agricultural Policy

In line with the membership of Taiwan in the World Trade Organization (WTO), adaptive measures have been explored in the area of agricultural price and foreign trade policies. During the recent years, joint research projects covered the aspects of rising food safety standards, of improving food safety and its repercussions on agricultural production in Taiwan and its international trade with agricultural and food products.

5. Agriculture and the Environment

In view of the significant environmental strain resulting from intensive land use, animal husbandry and food processing companies, the introduction of environmentally sounder production processes are being examined in terms of the German experience. This also covers all aspects with respect to food safety.

6. Food Security

In particular the geo-political uncertainty and risks in the supply of food require decisions with respect to the degree of self-sufficiency or strategic stockpiling, which are being analysed in various research projects.

7. Land Use Planning

Due to a high concentration of the population and of industrial plants on about one third of the total national area a high degree of environmental damages can be observed. In addition, houses and residential areas are spread all over the rural areas without any integrated planning. In joint research projects the German experiences with regional and local land use planning are analysed. Similarly, the options and conditions in applying this experience in Taiwan are being discussed.

8. Rural Construction and Settlement Planning

This aspect concerns the question how living in the rural areas can be arranged in the future, given that one third of the country is very densely while the other two thirds are only marginally populated. The rapid modernisation of the economy and society and the rapid expansion of modern means of communication might provide new options for rural areas. The analysis of the German and European experiences might give some clues.

Depending on need and interest additional topics might be analysed. A general assembly (Joint Board Meeting) takes place each year, alternating between Bonn and Taipei, in order to review the results of the collaboration projects and to allow decisions to be made on the initiation of new projects. Over the period of 1980 – 2007, 25 of these joint board meetings, which respectively include internal expert discussions, seminars with guest speakers and an excursion relating to a relevant topic each time, have taken place. These excursions focus on always changing issues, starting from agricultural production and food processing, agricultural trade, land use planning and village renewal programmes, up to agricultural administration and agricultural social security systems.

This ongoing partnership which has been intensively cultivated by the German and Taiwanese sides for almost 40 years, has led to close contacts between researchers and fruitful personal relationships. During the first years, contacts mainly focused on the Council of Agriculture, the National Taiwan University in Taipei and the National Chung Hsing University in Taichung. In line with a broadening of analysed research issues close contacts have been built up with a number of additional universities of the country, for example with the National Tsing Hua University in Hsin-Chu, the National Ilan University in Ilan, the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology in Pingtung, or the National Dong Hwa University in Hualien.

With respect to the German side, the Association is closely linked to the Institute of Food and Resource Economics (i.e. the former Institute for Agricultural Policy, Market Research and Economic Sociology) at the University of Bonn. However, during the last years, researchers from other institutes of Bonn University as well as from other universities have been integrated in the joint research projects, for example from the University of Rostock, University of Kassel and Humboldt University in Berlin.
Besides the design and execution of joint research projects more short-term oriented political advisory services have played an important role among the activities of the Association. The main partners were the Council of Agriculture and the Ministry of Economic Affairs. In this respect, some research projects have been executed about the aspect of foreign trade relations and economic cooperation between Taiwan and Germany (Europe) to facilitate the decision-making process. During the last years, a number of other issues have been taken up, in addition to agricultural trade, like problems of rural development, environmental protection, land use planning, food safety and consumers’ protection.

All these joint research projects within the framework of the Taiwanese-German Association for Social and Economic Research are good examples for the steady expansion and intensification in international relations with Taiwan.

History of the Association:

The Association has a long tradition. Already at the beginning of the 1960s, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Heinrich Niehaus, former director of the Institute of Agricultural Policy, Market Research and Economic Sociology at Bonn University, visited the Republic of China (Taiwan) several times.

In talks held with various government agencies and banks, Prof. Niehaus offered his support in solving export problems faced by Taiwanese products in the European and especially the German markets. At that time, Taiwan’s foreign trade consisted for the most part of the export of agricultural products, with the export of mushrooms and asparagus dominating the picture. The interest of partners in Taiwan focused on improving the transparency of the German sales market by means of market research and the elimination of import barriers.

Upon the occasion of a return visit to Bonn made by the Taiwanese partners in 1966, a proposal was made by the German side to institutionalize the collaboration and to transfer the joint activities to a Sino-German Association. This idea was accepted without any inhibitions by the Taiwanese side and the founding assembly had been convened in Bonn at 31 October 1967. A bit later the Sino-German Association for Social and Economic Research had been officially registered as a non-profit association under German law. Due to the changing political situation, the Association had been renamed Taiwanese-German Association for Social and Economic Research at 28 January 2005.

The founding German and Taiwanese members were:

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Heinrich Niehaus, Bonn
Prof. Dr. Otto Strecker, Bonn
Prof. Dr. Franz Gerl, Bonn
Dr. Josef Linscheid, Bonn
Dr. Tao-ju Ying, Bonn
Prof. Tseng Hsiao, President of the Land Bank of Taiwan, Taipei
Prof. S.Y. Dao, Secretary General of the Council for International Economic Co-operation and Development, Taipei
Dr. Y.S. Tsiang, Director of the Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction, Taipei

As a bi-national Association it is composed of German and Taiwanese members. Most of them work either as researchers or as officials in the administration. According to the statutes, the Association will be chaired by the German side. Hence, Prof. Niehaus was elected as the first Chairman of the Board. Similarly, businesses of the Association are to be performed by the German side. Due to the long distance general assemblies have to be conducted separately in each country, i.e. for the German side in Bonn, for the Taiwanese side in Taipei. Therefore, in order to be fully binding, any vital resolution has to be confirmed by the respective “sister” assembly. However, in each year a joint board meeting will be held which will be combined with a scientific workshop. These joint board meetings will be held on an alternating basis one year in Bonn, in the following one in Taipei.

The expenses incurred in the conduct of the business of the Association are financed by resources made available from the German and Taiwanese sides. The Government of Taiwan (Republic of China) has declared its commitment that it would provide a long-term grant to be paid out on an annual basis.

The working programme of the Association initially was occupied with drafting reports on the development of foreign trade in the agricultural sector. Beyond this it addressed special issues which were of particular interest to the government at that time. The focus had been on the following major issues:

monitoring of the major countries competing with Taiwan with respect to its most important agricultural products
analysis of price movements in the relevant product markets
analysis of changes in consumer preferences in Germany with respect to the Taiwanese product range

To complement this, the design of the permanently more integrating EU agricultural policy has been analysed. Special emphasis has been laid on foreign trade measures with respect to agricultural products and Taiwanese government offices have informed about these, accordingly.

After this initial phase of collaboration, the Taiwanese partners developed new initiatives to intensify the collaboration from a long-term perspective at the end of the 1970s. This was related to changes in the staff and board members of the Association, first on the Taiwanese side and – following the death of Prof. Niehaus (1977) – on the German side as well. The new quality of the collaboration is expressed in the following goals.

planning and execution of joint research work in the areas of agricultural and rural development as well as resource planning and environmental development
promotion of exchanges of lecturers and doctoral candidates
provision of assistance for delegations from Taiwan who examine specific topics in short-term visits
preparation of annual reports on the results of the working programme of the Association and of special reports on specific substance matters on request
organisation and execution of Joint Board Meetings of the Taiwanese and German partners alternating between Bonn and Taipei on an annual basis
support of the annual working programmes with financial grants provided by the Government of Taiwan within the framework of five year (later four year) collaboration agreements

At the beginning of the 1980s, the focus of the joint research activities had been laid on changing land tenure systems, changing production patterns and the impact of the rapid industrialisation on the farm-household systems. These activities have been complemented by the analyses on changing consumer preferences and environmental protection issues in the following years. During the last years, the range of analysed topics has been quickly enlarged. Beside ”classical” topics, like agricultural and rural development, consumers’ behaviour and environmental protection new topics have emerged, like problems of rural development in light of a declining agricultural sector, new roles of land use and regional planning, village renewal, consumers’ protection, food safety problems as well as the impact of Taiwan’s membership to the WTO on agricultural production and agricultural trade.

During the early years, most joint activities have been done with various governmental agencies, particularly the Council of Agriculture. In connection with the execution of more research oriented activities, partners of various universities of the country have been integrated. First of all the National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung and later the National Taiwan University, Taipei, stand at the forefront. In the following years, more partners, like the National Cheng Chi University, the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, the Soochow University and the National Ilan University have been included. Depending on the subject, partners might also be invited from other research institutions.