Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou will give his only public address in Silicon Valley at Stanford University. Following a welcome by Stanford Provost John Etchemendy, Dr. Ma will speak on Taipei's Changing Role in the Global IT Industry. Mayor Ma's speech is hosted by the Stanford Project on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SPRIE), dedicated to international and interdisciplinary research on the world's high technology regions.

About Ma Ying-jeou

Born in Hong Kong in 1950, Ma Ying-jeou was raised in Taipei, Taiwan and received law degrees National Taiwan University, NYU, and Harvard. Dr. Ma began his career by working in Boston and on Wall Street, and returned to Taiwan in 1981 to serve in the Presidential Office. He has had a distinguished career of government service, including being appointed Deputy Secretary-General for international affairs of the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) at age 33, the youngest ever in that party. In December 1998, he won Taipei's mayoral election, unseating the popular incumbent mayor Chen Shui-bian. In 2002, he was re-elected in a landslide, winning 64.1 percent of the votes cast. During this visit to Silicon Valley, Mayor Ma will focus on Taipei's role in global high technology industries, and will meet with university and high technology company leaders.

11:45 am luncheon 12:00 pm program begins Lunch provided only to those who make a reservation with Ms. Okky Choi by 12:00 pm on Wednesday, May 28. You can contact her via email at okkychoi@stanford.edu or via phone at 650-724-8271.

About the Talk Everyone likes the city full of parks and open space. But why has more and more open space been lost in Tokyo, while other metropolitan areas such as San Francisco succeed in keeping greeneries? Based on the research and work experience in both Tokyo and San Francisco, Tomoko Takeuchi analyzes why greenery areas are disappearing in Tokyo and proposes a recovery plan. The discussion topics include: - Current problems of the park planning in Tokyo. - Social, historical, and natural comparison between Tokyo and San Francisco. - Advantages of San Francisco's park planning over that of Tokyo - Recommendation for the city planning policy of Tokyo Tomoko Takeuchi is a chief city planner at Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Japan and currently a visiting scholar at Shorenstein APARC, Stanford. She obtained a master degree in landscape architecture from the University of Tokyo.

In recent years, despite the Chinese economy's rapid growth -- the highest in the world -- and China's progress in improving its financial system, serious risks and problems in the Chinese stock market remain. After examining such issues as high speculation and high P/E ratios in the Chinese stock market, Ms. Wang, in her work with Dr. Lawrence Lau (Shorenstein APARC), argues that the Chinese government should formulate certain tax policies. These proposed policies would not only increase the corporate after-tax profits but they would also encourage the substitution of equity for debt. Currently such a strategy would lower the P/E ratios without lowering the stock prices, attract new long-term investors, and strengthen the stability of the stock market. It will not significantly reduce fiscal revenue but likely increase the tax revenue in the long run. Please join us for a lively discussion of the issues and policies that Ms. Wang proposes in her presentation.

This lecture is part of a series entitled "Lectures linking North Korea and Iraq." Dr. Kyung-Won Kim currently serves as president of the Institute of Social Sciences in Seoul, where he is also president of the Seoul Forum for International Affairs. Prior to his post in Washington, he was ambassador to the United Nations (1982-1985), and from 1975-1980 he serves as special assistant for international affairs to the Korean president. Dr. Kim holds a PhD from Harvard University, and honorary doctorates from Williams College and York University.