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The Institute of Taiwan History and the Institute of Economics at Academia Sinica today (September 18) signed an MOU with the Bank of Taiwan to promote collaboration on preserving and using the bank’s postwar historical records. Under the agreement, the three parties will work together on digitization, academic research, and educational outreach to advance research on Taiwan’s historical and economic development and make these records more accessible to the public.

Shu-min Chung, Director of the Institute of Taiwan History, remarked that the Institute and the Bank of Taiwan have a longstanding academic partnership. Since 2012, the two have collaborated on the preservation and digitization of documents from the Japanese colonial period. The collaboration later led to the discovery of rare and well-preserved newspapers from the Japanese colonial period in the archives of the Bank of Taiwan’s Economic Research Department, including the Taiwan Shinminpo, which have since been digitized and made available to researchers and the general public. The archives of the Institute of Taiwan History has also recently begun exploring the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to help interpret and translate prewar newspapers. Building on this solid foundation, the new three-party collaboration will extend to postwar materials, broadening research on Taiwan’s modern and contemporary history.

Juin-jen Chang, Director of the Institute of Economics, noted that the Bank of Taiwan served as a policy bank with functions comparable to those of a central bank during the Japanese colonial period. In the early postwar period, it acted on behalf of the Central Bank while also serving as Taiwan’s largest commercial bank, accumulating extensive economic and financial records as a result. This new collaboration will help researchers revisit postwar Taiwan’s economic and financial policies and socioeconomic data. The institutions also plan to use AI to analyze long-term changes in Taiwan’s economic development.

Jong-Yuan Ling, Chairperson of the Bank of Taiwan, said that the Institute of Taiwan History and the Institute of Economics bring substantial research expertise to the collaboration, while the Bank of Taiwan contributes its extensive collection of rare historical materials. By combining these resources through interdisciplinary collaboration, the three institutions seek to expand access to and use of historical records, preserve Taiwan’s historical and financial heritage, and promote the sharing of public resources.

Established in 1899, the Bank of Taiwan was Taiwan’s first bank. In addition to being a leading player in Taiwan’s banking sector, the bank has also played a central role in economic research and surveys, and has played a significant role in preserving Taiwan’s historical documents and recording Taiwan’s modernization. The bank’s Economic Research Department, established in the early postwar period, published works such as the Taiwan Historical Documents Series and the Bank of Taiwan Quarterly, which remain important sources for research on Taiwan’s history.

At the signing ceremony, Director Shu-min Chung, Director Juin-jen Chang, and Chairperson Jong-Yuan Ling signed the MOU on behalf of the three institutions at the nearly century-old Bank of Taiwan headquarters, marking the formal launch of the three-party partnership.

The ceremony was also attended by Pin-tsang Tseng, Associate Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the Institute of Taiwan History; Li-chiao Wang, Senior Research Specialist and Director of the Archives of the Institute of Taiwan History; Chia-Hsiao Wu, President of the Bank of Taiwan; Ya-Ling Lin, Independent Managing Director of the Bank of Taiwan; Yung-Sheng Chen, Managing Director of the Bank of Taiwan; and several other guests.