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ICT can improve lives, experts say

Information and communication technology (ICT) can facilitate lives in urban and rural areas and help create a lifestyle of health and sustainability (LOHAS), participants at a seminar on ICT applications said yesterday.

Pundits and experts from Taiwan and Europe discussed how to use ICT to promote urban renewal and industrial development at the conference, The International Seminar on ICT Utilization for Regional Revitalization.

Ke Jyh-sheng (柯志昇), the chief executive of event cosponsor the Institute for Information Technology (III), said ICT plays a key role in regional development, local business development, niche industries and leisure farms.

Hsiao Mei-li (蕭美麗), another III official in charge of research to support industry, said if good use is made of ICT the gap between urban and rural areas can be narrowed, enticing young men to return to their hometowns and helping to preserve niche industries.

She noted that in Japan, South Korea and Thailand, governments have used ICT to engage in regional renewal.

Yeh Yun-lung (葉雲龍), director-general of the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Department of Commerce, said the ministry had already begun to promote the concept of LOHAS in Sinshe Township (新社), Taichung County.

The ministry will next target Taipei’s Ximending (西門町), Lugang (鹿港) in Changhua County, and Hengchun (恆春) in Pingtung County, hoping to achieve sustainable development in the three areas, while maintaining their local features.

Sascha Haselmayer, the chief executive of the seminar’s other cosponsor, the nonprofit Living Labs Global, lauded Taipei’s Citizen’s Hotline 1999 enquiries service as a unique example of using ICT to improve the lives of residents.

Haselmayer also introduced ICT used in urban life and regional development to participants, such as using mobile phones to inquire about available parking spaces and to pay parking fees.
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