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Cabinet approves plan for `ubiquitous network society'

The Executive Yuan approved a five-year National Information and Communications Initiative (NICI) package yesterday to strengthen Taiwan's communications infrastructure and reinforce its leading position in the field.

The plan was approved at the weekly Cabinet meeting.

Under the plan, the government will earmark NT$55.6 billion (US$1.68 billion) to implement the package that will build Taiwan into a "ubiquitous network society," Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said.

He urged government agencies, including the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, to pool their personnel and resources to serve that end -- especially since the major international rating organizations will soon start their annual surveys.

At the end of last year, about 60 percent of the population, or some 14.52 million people from 5.3 million households, had logged on to the Internet, making Taiwan one of the world's front-runners in Internet usage, Su said.

He pointed out, however, that Taiwan's indexes in some areas have registered drops in international ratings, and said the government must investigate the reasons for the drops and strengthen regulations on Web sites and online services.

Digital divide

This would help narrow the digital divide between the underprivileged or people living in rural areas and urban dwellers and upgrade their living standards, he said. It would also improve overall national competitiveness, he said.

Since Taiwan began promoting the NICI package in 2002, its performance in telecommunications development has won international acclaim from the International Telecommunication Union, the World Economic Forum and Brown University, Science and Technology Advisory Group, officials said.

Five-year plan

Over the next five years, some NT$11.3 billion of the NT$55.6 billion in funding will be used for life-improving applications for everyday life, ranging from food and housing to entertainment, the officials said. They said NT$26.5 billion would be used to expand the wireless network infrastructure, while NT$8.8 billion will go to the promotion of an e-government, digital opportunity and innovative high-tech services.

The annual production value of promising start-up businesses in the "ubiquitous network society" is estimated at around NT$1 trillion, the NICI report said.
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