Developing the electronic publishing industry is in the best interests of both Taiwan and China and the two sides are coming to terms with each other to tap the vast Chinese-language e-book market, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said yesterday.
Officials from the ministry and the Institute for Information Industry have been talking with their Chinese counterparts about technical integration and standardization of the industry’s digital content, including simplified and traditional Chinese characters as well as the different terms and phrases used on the two sides for identical ideas, the ministry said.
CHINA MARKET
China’s huge market is the key to a boom in Taiwan’s electronic publishing industry and e-book development, the officials said.
With big-name makers such as AU Optronics, Delta and Hon Hai entering the market, local firms’ global output of e-books is expected to increase by NT$30 billion (US$937.5 million) in two years to NT$42 billion, the officials said.
MADE IN TAIWAN
Local companies provide 80 percent of the components and related hardware used in the world’s e-book manufacturing industry, with sales topping a combined NT$12 billion per year.
The ministry said the number of e-book readers in Taiwan would reach 10,000 by the end of this year and grow 100-fold to hit 1 million by 2013.
The ministry will funnel NT$2.13 billion over the next five years into creating large Chinese-language content trading centers, promoting e-learning model projects and seeking cross-strait cooperation in publishing, as well as subsidizing the research and development of related industries, the officials said.
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