Information technology industries across the Taiwan Strait could gain a global head start by cooperating on green energy and light emitting diode (LED) technology, industry watchers said yesterday.
"These two are the hottest emerging areas in the IT field, and both sides could work together to establish industrial standards and share intellectual property rights," said Johnny Shyu (徐世勳), manager of the Sinocon Industrial Standards Foundation (華聚產業共同標準基金會).
Shyu talked with the Taipei Times on the sidelines of a seminar where industry representatives from both sides of the Taiwan Strait were discussing collaborations to set up joint technology standards.
Since the Chinese government has been aggressively promoting a "greener" society, Taiwanese firms would be able to tap into that massive market by working with Chinese firms at an early stage, Shyu said.
Beijing has set the goal of building an energy-efficient, less resource-intensive and more sustainable society as part of its 11th Five-Year Plan, which will guide China's development for the next five years.
Meanwhile, as LEDs are widely used in everything from traffic signals, mobile phones and liquid-crystal-display panel backlighting to automobiles, this presents another potential cash cow for both local and Chinese firms, Shyu said.
Set up last December, the Sinocon Industrial Standards Foundation was tasked to form common IT development platforms for the Greater China region.
All 26 foundation members are technology heavyweights, including Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦) and Delta Electronics Inc (台達電子).
In addition to green energy and LEDs, both sides of the Strait will focus on cooperation on joint technology standards for third-generation (3G) mobile networks, flat-panel displays and mobile storage as well as an audio and video coding standard, the foundation said.
"Our IT industries have long been hampered by issues such as royalties lawsuits from other countries and lower profitability after focusing on original equipment and design manufacturing," said Rock Hsu (
Therefore, companies on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should work hand-in-hand to form a new supply chain of their own, instead of following in the footsteps of other developed countries, he said.
He said that China has a huge market with superior manufacturing facilities, while Taiwan has the wealth of experience in management and innovation.
The foundation will take a delegation from Taiwan to Beijing later this year to exchange views with their Chinese peers.
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