Taiwan Land Development Corp (TLDC, 台灣土地開發) yesterday inked a cooperation pact with Japanese information science professor Ken Sakamura to turn Hualien into a “smart” city that is more friendly to foreign visitors.
The two sides agreed to join forces to transform the city in three stages by 2020, TLDC chairman Chiu Fu-sheng (邱復生) told a news conference in Taipei.
“The project requires talent and cooperation from the local government,” Chiu said, adding that money is only a secondary concern.
Taoyuan and Taichung officials have also expressed interest in developing smart cities, but Hualien officials appear to need more persuasion, the former media tycoon said.
The Taipei-based firm is also developing massive mixed-use complexes in Hsinchu, Nantou and Kinmen counties, but is to first introduce related technologies to its complexes in Hualien, he said.
Sakamura is known for pioneering in 1984 The Real-time Operating System Nucleus, a project that aims to build an open architecture for embedded systems — in other words: creating an ideal computer architecture and network that can provide for all of society’s needs.
INTEGRATED SYSTEM
In the first stage of the project, Hualien is to be included in Japan’s Kokosil application system, which contains a variety of information regarding sightseeing spots, towns, museums and art galleries throughout Japan.
The system would offer information in four languages about Hualien, along with other international cities such as Tokyo, which Sakamura is working on developing ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games, Chiu said.
The second stage would create a cashless environment for TLDC members when they embark on recreational activities such as paragliding, waterskiing, shopping and dining, he said.
The third stage aims to build a safe living environment in which the ubiquitous system would, among other functions, be able to locate users to ensure their physical safety and well-being, Chiu said.
To groom the necessary talent, TLDC is to offer scholarships for Hualien locals to study cloud computing and Internet of Things technologies at Toyo University’s Faculty of Information Networking for Innovation and Design, where Sakamura teaches, he said.
Hopefully, the recipients of the scholarships could contribute to the development of smart cities in Taiwan after completing their studies, he said.
KINMEN GROWTH
Separately, TLDC said Wind Lion Plaza (風獅城) in Kinmen, a build-operate-transfer project with the county government, saw a 20 percent increase in revenue in the first 11 months of this year to NT$340 million (US$11.34 million).
An increase in visitors from Xiamen, China, accounted for the strong showing, even though the number of Chinese visitors to Taiwan continued to decline this year, TLDC said.
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