In 2020, Business Weekly published A Road not Far from Home 「走一條藜家不遠的路」, an account of how one bleak town in Taitung reversed its fortune. In just three years, youths and local farmers banded together and transformed locally-grown red quinoa into a NT$2 billion cash crop. As a result, this small indigenous township rose to prosperity. This isn’t an isolated incident, however—a similar situation is unfolding in the fish farming village of Kouhu Township, Yunlin. The Taiwan Sea Bream Revitalization Program, set to run through to 2023, will train 1,090 fishermen on the use of cutting-edge technology. It is estimated that the program will contribute to a yield of 85.6 million kg (approximately 94,357 tons) worth NT$29 million. These are but two success stories of Taiwan's Regional Revitalization Policy. In recent years, the policy’s results have moved waves of youth to return to their rural hometowns. Regional revitalization is now promoted as an important national security-level policy. This is seen in the Executive Yuan’s declaration of 2019 as the first year of the Taiwan Regional Revitalization Policy. The Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) has launched the Humanity Innovation and Social Practice (HISP) Project in 2012. Its purpose is to introduce guidance systems according to each region's unique characteristics and strengths and transform rural development in Taiwan.  

This article is about the interview with Yu Chien-hwa, Deputy Minister of the National Development Council (NDC), and Lin Ming-jen, Director-General of the Department of Humanities and Social Science (DHSS), Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST).