Vice President Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) on Sunday inaugurated the base for the implementation of the government’s “Asian Silicon Valley” project, which is designed to improve the nation’s overall economic structure.
The major tasks of the Executive Center for the Asian Silicon Valley Plan in Taoyuan are to promote the Internet of Things (IoT) and innovative industries, boost economic development by integrating local and international sectors, and push industrial transformation, Chen said at the ceremony.
The opening is the first step for the executive center, from which Taiwan intends to bring together talent in innovation from around the world, making them into the power driving Taiwan’s industrial upgrade and transformation, Chen said.
Photo: Lee Jung-ping, Taipei Times
The center is in a financial building in front of the Taoyuan High Speed Rail Station in Jhongli District (中壢).
Chen said the new facility is expected to develop Taoyuan into the engine for Taiwan’s economic development.
The plan was not formed to make a Taiwanese copy of Silicon Valley in California, “but to encourage Taiwanese industries to have the spirit of innovation,” Chen said.
According to the National Development Council, which drafted the Asian Silicon Valley implementation plan, it consists of “one ecosystem,” “two objectives,” “three links” and “four strategies.”
The ecosystem means the formation of a cluster of innovative start-ups with a heavy focus on research and development (R&D), while the two objectives include one to foster the ecosystem and another to promote innovative R&D for IoT industries, the council said. The three links means joining local industries to connect Taiwan to the world and build links to the future.
As for the four strategies, they are the concrete steps the government will take to tie Taiwan to Silicon Valley and other global technology clusters, turning the nation into an innovative start-up destination for young Asians and creating new industries for the next generation, it said.
The implementation strategies include creating a robust start-up and entrepreneurship ecosystem by cultivating innovative talent, providing business expansion capital and adjusting laws to create a friendlier environment for start-ups; establishing a one-stop service center to integrate the R&D capabilities of Silicon Valley and other global innovation clusters; integrating Taiwan’s hardware advantages into software applications; and establishing a quality Internet environment, it said.
The plan’s implementation period will run through 2023, the council said.
A budget of NT$11.3 billion (US$350.4 million) has already been allocated for next year for Internet infrastructure, mobile broadband services, e-commerce, smart applications, industry-university collaboration, test beds, digital talent and regulatory adjustment, the council said.
Projecting the combined effect of the Asian Silicon Valley plan and other digital economy plans, the council said it expects Taiwan’s IoT global market share to climb from 3.8 percent last year to 4.2 percent by 2020 and to 5 percent by 2025.
Premier Lin Chuan (林全) has said that the aim of the plan is to improve the nation’s overall economic structure.
The Asian Silicon Valley initiative is similar in nature to the Industry 4.0 movement taking hold around the world and is one of five innovative industries upon which President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has vowed to focus, Lin said.
Four other innovative industries the Tsai administration has designated as the core of Taiwan’s economy are “smart” machinery, “green” technology, biomedical technology and national defense.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS