In less than a few weeks, Microsoft's Bill Gates, Cisco System's John Chambers, HP's Carly Fiorina and presidents or CEOs from the rest of the world's major IT companies will descend on Taipei for the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) 2000 (
Held only once every two years, this event brings together executives, government officials and members of academia to discuss how organizations can work together to further the information revolution.
According to the executive director of this year's WCIT, Arthur Hwa (
Hwa said 29 speakers have already been confirmed, including the professionals named above and local IT professionals Stan Shih (
One of the speakers will be Nobel Prize winning economist Robert Mundell, who in his previous visit to Taiwan used the term "Internet boom" to describe the technological revolution and productivity gains that could be realized through the use of Internet technologies.
According to pre-event information, Mundell plans to speak about how the Internet has not only transformed the US economy, but has been a major factor in shaping the "new world economy."
Hwa said that one of the more exciting events he expects is Ericsson CEO Kurt Hellstrom's speech on mobile Internet access. He said that of the big mobile telecommunications companies, only Ericsson's CEO agreed to come to WCIT 2000 to speak on the topic.
WCIT events will span the three days between June 12 and June 14. The conference will be held at the Taipei World Trade Center. In the 20 year history of the event, Taiwan will be only the second Asian country to host it, Japan having hosted it previously.
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