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Chen envisions Taiwan as a `digital life island'

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday vowed to safeguard the nation's leading position in the global IT industry and to turn the country into a "digital life island."

He made the remarks during a speech at the 2007 IT Month organized by the Taipei Computer Association held at the Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall 1, which opened yesterday and will run through Dec. 9.

More than 650 foreign and local companies are participating in the 28th exhibition of IT Month, with about 1,700 stalls and an expected attendance in the tens of thousands.

Chen said this year's theme, "Love Digital Life," reflected the trend toward a "digital life island," where digital life is widely enjoyed by the public.

Citing a government report issued earlier this year, Chen said that about 65.5 percent of Taiwanese, or 13 million people, use the Internet and that the percentage of Internet household access was 74.7 percent. Mobile phone penetration in the population was 103.2 percent, he said.

Chen said the development of the nation's IT industry was recognized internationally, citing the International Telecommunication Union's World Information Society Report 2007, in which Taiwan ranks No. 7 in the world in the Digital Opportunity Index.

"But we can neither become complacent nor slack off," he said. "The government will inject NT$55.6 billion [US$1.72 billion] in the coming five years into the IT infrastructure."

Chen was referring to a proposal of developing the information and communication industry from this year through 2011, a plan that includes NT$11.3 billion for the innovation of digital daily products, NT$26.5 billion for the creation of a high-speed network, NT$8.8 billion for developing e-government and NT$10 billion to narrow the nation's digital divide.
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