The career of a concerned civil servant never is easy. Yet, despite the internal and external pressures that have ravaged China during his 58 years, Ll KWOH-TING has sustained through adulthood his commitment to help his people through effective government service. Schooled in his native Nanking and in England, LI returned to China in 1937 to teach physics. Within four years he was drafted to spur defense production in the remote interior where the Chinese maintained their resistance against the Japanese.
A gifted planner of China's postwar industrial rehabilitation, LI transferred his efforts to Taiwan as Communist armies seized the mainland. From organizing shipbuilding he rose to help plan the island's industrialization. In 1958 he became responsible for coordinating U.S. economic assistance which LI and his colleagues used so efficiently that by 1965 aid no longer was needed. Through successive posts LI overcame internal resistance to chart sound policies attracting private domestic and foreign capital and management and international loans to create an ever-expanding economy based on balanced encouragement of both agriculture and industry.
Spurred by government actions largely designed or actively supported by LI, Taiwan's foreign trade grew from US$420 million in 1960 to US$1,173 million in 1966. The island became the world's leading exporter of canned mushrooms. Processing of other agricultural commodities has continually expanded. Increasing sales abroad of electronic components, chemicals, plastics and metal manufactures and appliances bespeak a growing sophistication of industry. Over the past 10 years, the annual rate of industrial growth has averaged 13.8 percent.
Widely acknowledged as a model for agricultural modernization—complete with effective land reform—and of diversified industrialization, Taiwan is now helping other developing countries. Nearly 4,000 foreign technicians have come to learn on farms and in factories. More than 30 teams of Chinese specialists now are working in some 20 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, sharing their experience.
As a chief architect and promoter of the industrial miracle that has emerged following the growth in Taiwan's rural productivity and buying power, K. T. Ll has channeled national resources where they were most needed. With the cooperation of his peers he has shown that what counts more than material resources and funds for national development is enlightened and discriminating use of human skill and determination.
In electing LI KWOH-TING, Minister of Economic Affairs of the Republic of China, to receive the 1968 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service, the Board of Trustees recognizes his vigorous, rational guidance of Taiwan's economy, generating one of the world's most rapid rates of industrial growth.
