Taipei City Government

Later on 12/15, Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-Je attended the Asia Pacific Medical Cross-Field Educational Industrial Academic Forum, where he said medicine can become an extremely important medium for Taiwan’s non-governmental diplomacy. Ko mentioned that 2 mayors from the Philippines led delegations to Taiwan this week, and both of them proposed remarkably similar exchange programs in that they have built hospitals but do not have the management know-how. In today’s economy, purchasing medical equipment is relatively easy compared to the training of doctors, and an added challenge is hospital management. In light of this, Ko used the theory of 4 wheels as an analogy; in terms of medicine, NTUH is ranked among the top 3 in the country in any discipline, but in terms of fields outside of medicine such as procurement, security, or personnel, it will not necessarily be the best in the business. In other words, Ko believes if one wheel is larger than the rest, the vehicle will tip over easily.

Therefore, Ko indicated that after assuming office at the Taipei City Government, he realized a department outperforming others is futile since if a hospital only has exceptional physicians but is plagued by poor logistics, the overall performance will be negatively affected. Consequently, in order to maintain an efficient system, Ko believes that it is preferable to have 4 medium-sized wheels instead of one large wheel with 3 smaller wheels. In response to the request for hospital management-related assistance from the Filipino mayors, simply dispatching doctors over there will not have an immediate impact. Nonetheless, Taiwan is currently considered competitive in exporting medicine-related know-how such as hospital management.

Ko remarked that the Taipei City Government has included biotechnology as a key industry besides startups and ICT, but thus far the performance has been underwhelming, to say the least. He admits that there are still blind spots that have not been discovered yet, thus how to engage the enormous talent pool into the industry and utilize them efficiently is a challenge that requires further deliberation. Lastly, Ko believes that for international markets with high barriers to entry such as Cambodia, medicine can be used as a non-governmental diplomatic technique, and whether it is physicians or medicine, Taiwan possesses a greater advantage in hospital management.