Annual production volume of the nation's digital content sector is expected to surge to NT$600 billion (US$18.6 billion) by the end of 2010, up 66.25 percent from NT$360.9 billion last year, boosted by an educational cooperation agreement with Sony, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The ministry signed a memorandum yesterday with Japanese video game company Sony Computer Entertainment Inc -- the world's leading producer of video games -- in a bid to help train digital content industry professionals in Taiwan.
"The ministry expects the cooperative training program to help stimulate the nation's digital content sector and expects annual production volume to hit NT$600 billion in 2010, with 30 percent in export sales," Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (陳瑞隆) said at a media briefing.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
Sony Computer Entertainment banked hopes on expansion in Taiwan last month with the opening of a new subsidiary, Sony Computer Entertainment Taiwan Ltd. Sony's Taiwan operations had previously been run under its Hong Kong subsidiary, Minister-without-portfolio Lin Feng-ching (
"The success of the video game Railfan: Taiwan High Speed Rail, which Sony Computer Entertainment developed together with domestic companies last year, proved that Taiwan possesses the technical competence," Lin said.
Tetsuhiko Yasuda, managing director of Sony Computer Entertainment Asia, said yesterday that the educational program would launch in September, but declined to provide the names of the cooperating institutions.
Sony Computer Entertainment produces the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PSP (PlayStation Portable) and PlayStation 3 consoles.
The company is one of 87 firms -- including Soft-World International Corp (智冠科技) and Softstar Entertainment Inc (大宇資訊) -- operating 609 booths at the five-day Taipei Game Show, which opened yesterday at Exhibition Hall I of the Taipei World Trade Center.
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ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to