Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts '78 left last Friday for Taiwan, leading a New England delegation of lawmakers on an eight-day trip focused on healthcare issues and economic development.
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Boston, one of 13 such offices in the United States, organizes the trip each year to bring the two countries closer together, said Scott Lai, the office's division director and senior planner for this year's visit.
Jennifer Wood '81, Roberts' general counsel and chief of policy, said the lieutenant governor's office requested that the trip focus on health care reform and economic development strategies, since Roberts has focused on these issues in her time in office. Last spring, for example, her office released a report outlining potential for stem-cell research growth in Rhode Island.
Roberts is accompanied by Wood and state legislators from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine.
"The economy in Taiwan is one that has really transformed itself from a manufacturing economy into a (biotechnology) economy," Wood said, adding that Roberts wants to focus on encouraging a similar transformation in Rhode Island.
"With a trip like this an elected official meets a wide range of government, business and education leaders," said Darrell West, professor of political science and director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy. "Those types of personal relationships can really pay off down the road in terms of business deals, educational opportunities and government connections."
"My philosophy is that to see is to believe," Lai said, adding that he was constantly working to show his American friends "how good" Taiwan is. "I always tell them to go there - to see for themselves," he said.
"That's the purpose of this trip," Lai said.
The Taiwanese government funded the visit, and the delegation flew Friday nonstop from Los Angeles to Taipei and is set to return Saturday, Oct. 13.
Lai said the planning process for the trip had been underway since the beginning of the year and that the visit's focus on the Taiwanese healthcare system was chosen because "we know many states in the New England area are very much concerned about national health care in each state."
Though Wood said the delegation was not hoping to "transplant wholesale the nationalized health care system" in Taiwan, she said legislators would be looking at how the system is structured, how it operates, who it affects and which elements have been criticized.
"Health care has been and continues to be a big part of (Roberts') portfolio," Woods said, mentioning the lieutenant governor's co-chairmanship of the permanent Joint Committee on Healthcare Oversight during her five-term stint in the Rhode Island State Senate.
During their week-long sojourn, the delegation is expected to meet with officials from the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Taiwan University Hospital.
The trip also includes visits to the Taipei World Trade Center and the International Electronics Autumn Show, as well as a tour of the government-supported Tainan Science Park, which Wood described as a crucial aspect of the visit as Rhode Island pushes to become a biotechnology hub.
"We will visit the industrial park administration, which is a government hub, and two of the actual companies (located within the park)," Wood said.
Biotechnology in Rhode Island took a hit in September when pharmaceutical company Amgen announced the layoff of 450 workers at its West Warwick plant, but West said that development only heightened the need for these types of visits.
"The current layoffs demonstrate how precarious the Rhode Island economy is, and ... we need businesses to export abroad. That will bring more revenue to the state and create needed jobs," West said. Biotechnology is an intelligent economic strategy for Rhode Island because of intense interest in the industry, especially in the form of venture capital, he said.
"It's a job creator," West added.
Wood said the Amgen layoffs highlight the process of "fits and starts" of biotechnology in Rhode Island. The industry "can become a stable environment for our economy, but there can be bumps along the way," she said.
