The concept of “sustainable development” originated from the United Nations General Assembly Report in 1987, and after years of promotion at global climate summits and international political and economic conferences, it has now become an important guiding principle for national development, as well as a core value and important blueprint for corporate development.

I personally witnessed the establishment of “TST”, and would like to express my sincere gratitude to both Taiwan Textile Research Institute and Taiwan Textile Federation for their support and assistance, as well as to all the Directors and Supervisors for sharing their valuable experiences, which have inspired many of our sustainable ideas and business strategies. The scope of sustainable development goals is extremely broad, and I suggest that we adopt the attitude of “cultivation and refinement” to deal with them. “Cultivation” enables enterprises to develop pragmatically and correctly in the global trend of sustainability, so as to become industry leaders; “refinement” is the necessary process of sustainable transformation, which requires a high degree of determination, perseverance, and patience in order to enjoy the results of the transformation.。

The textile industry is one of the industries most suitable for promoting sustainable development in Taiwan because of its rich experiences in the supply chains of international brands, its ability to quickly absorb and pragmatically promote advanced international trends, the fierce competitiveness of its products, and its high relevance to people’s needs. Nowadays, sustainability is a must for enterprises around the world. In this highly competitive era, it is a big challenge to move ahead steadily and well in order to take up business opportunities, so let’s work together to continue to play a key role for Taiwan’s textile industry in the implementation of global sustainable development.

Sincerely, Yen-Hsiang Shih