On April 22, ARK International Development and National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) signed a strategic alliance memorandum and academic-industry agreement for cooperation in aquaculture technology development. The bilateral partnership will create new employment opportunities for aquaculture students from NPUST and help ARK with its expansion into agriculture and aquaculture production.
At the signing ceremony, NPUST President Chang-Hsien Tai remarked that “through the signing of this strategic alliance and industry-academia aquaculture technology agreement, we will create a win-win situation for both parties. This platform will provide our current students with new opportunity to engage in the enterprise of smart agriculture and we trust that with the assistance of ARK, NPUST’s students can look forward to a favorable employment environment in the future.”
The CEO of ARK, Yang Songlin, said that “as fisheries are affected by the climate, we estimate that aquaculture will be one of our main areas of development. We will be cooperating with NPUST, working with them to train talent, and providing students with opportunities for seamless transitions into the workforce upon graduation.”
In recent years, NPUST has been executing the Ministry of Education’s “Sprout Project” and actively promoting interdisciplinary courses on-campus— providing students with interdisciplinary professional capabilities that correspond with trends in industry. One example of this is the Department of Aquaculture “interdisciplinary smart technology cultivation” curriculum, which was designed to familiarize students with production machinery and cultivation technology. For the program, the Department of Aquaculture will be coordinating with ARK, which will be providing internship opportunities to the students enrolled.
In 2014, ARK began cooperating with the government on the promotion of its renewable energy strategy. From planning and design, to setup and maintenance the company provides a full range of services for solar energy plant operations. Adding to this, ARK has also been coordinating with a government sponsored innovation project to promote new approaches to agriculture and aquaculture production.
One of ARK’s main goals is to develop indoor aquaculture production with solar panels installed on the roofs of the facilities. Currently they are working on 260 hectares of production space, which means they have considerable demand for skilled workers. The ambitious project will depend a great deal on talent cultivation, technology breakthroughs and market development. In order to meet the challenges, ARK conducted an assessment and determined the best way forward would be to team up with NPUST, which has an outstanding pedigree in the type of research and talent cultivation the enterprise requires. Through this strategic alliance ARK and NPUST will both be able to benefit from the exchange of experience, technology and information. Coordinating with the government’s related development projects, they will be making contributions to economic activity and environmental protection simultaneously through the creation of green-energy aquaculture facilities.
