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Sony inks deal to train Taiwanese

A fair staffer introduces a game to a browser on the opening day of the Taipei Game Show at the Taipei World Trade Center yesterday. PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES

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.

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 (林逢慶) said yesterday.

"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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