Taiwan—15 years of progress

Dr. Lew talks to the Asian Studies Society

The development and economic viability of Taiwan have been a matter of world interest, Dr. Daniel Lew told a recent meeting of the Asian Studies Society.

Dr. Lew, a Ph D graduate from Harvard, is a former Professor of Government at Tsinghua University in Peiping. He is now Nationalist China's ambassador to New Zealand.

He told members of the Society that Taiwan was nearly bankrupt when the Korean War broke out In 1950. Farm productivity was extremely low; industrial output was almost non-existent. Inflation was incipient, unemployment was high and living standards low.

Yet today its Gross National Product had more than doubled; its per capita income has risen to almost £60 a year, the second highest in Asia, industrial production has more than doubled, and electric power output is over one million kilowatts.