Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a second economic pillar for Taiwan, after the booming semiconductor industry, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) told an informal meeting with media on Tuesday.
"Taiwan doesn’t just have one ’huguo shenshan’ (sacred mountain protecting the nation), there is now also a second," Liu said.
Taiwan’s powerful semiconductor industry is often referred to as a "huguo shenshan" protecting it because the country produces more than 90 percent of the world’s high-end chips.
Photo courtesy of National Development Council
Noting that Taiwan is already a global AI hub with a significant global AI server market share, the entrepreneur-turned minister said he hopes Taiwan’s position in the global AI supply chain will be cemented through advancing AI hardware development, such as key components, cooling systems and processors.
Liu, who assumed office on Monday last week, said the NDC aims to help Taiwanese companies in the AI sector increase their overall global market share from just over 12 percent to 30 percent.
With semiconductors and AI as the dual cores of Taiwan’s economy, Liu pledged that the council would work with relevant government agencies to attract investment capital and talent to help these two industries develop.
Regarding income inequality in Taiwan, Liu said that if industries successfully shift to high-value operations, high-paying jobs and higher salaries will follow.
He pointed out that while about 60 percent of the country’s workforce is employed in the services industry, there are no world-renowned Taiwanese companies in the sector.
Therefore he proposed several strategies to boost the industry, including leveraging AI to enhance IT services. Liu also suggested integrating services across sectors through digitization and establishing holding companies to facilitate expansion into world markets.
Turning to Taiwan’s pathway to net-zero emissions in 2050, Liu said he was upbeat about the development of "turquoise hydrogen" to help lower carbon emissions, given that Academia Sinica has developed a new method of using natural gas decomposition to produce it.
Turquoise hydrogen, also known as low-carbon hydrogen, is a new method of producing hydrogen that results in significantly lower carbon emissions compared to traditional methods.
Liu explained that he will meet with experts from the institute on June 6 and that the goal is to commercialize the technology in the next three to five years.
Liu also said the government will also strive to reduce carbon emissions by promoting the Taiwan Renewable Energy Certificate (T-REC) system and green electricity trading.
The DBS Foundation yesterday announced the launch of two flagship programs, “Silver Motion” and “Happier Caregiver, Healthier Seniors,” in partnership with CCILU Ltd, Hondao Senior Citizens’ Welfare Foundation and the Garden of Hope Foundation to help Taiwan face the challenges of a rapidly aging population. The foundation said it would invest S$4.91 million (US$3.8 million) over three years to foster inclusion and resilience in an aging society. “Aging may bring challenges, but it also brings opportunities. With many Asian markets rapidly becoming super-aged, the DBS Foundation is working with a regional ecosystem of like-minded partners across the private, public and people sectors
BREAKTHROUGH TECH: Powertech expects its fan-out PLP system to become mainstream, saying it can offer three-times greater production throughput Chip packaging service provider Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) plans to more than double its capital expenditures next year to more than NT$40 billion (US$1.31 billion) as demand for its new panel-level packaging (PLP) technology, primarily used in chips for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, has greatly exceeded what it can supply. A significant portion of the budget, about US$1 billion, would be earmarked for fan-out PLP technology, Powertech told investors yesterday. Its heavy investment in fan-out PLP technology over the past 10 years is expected to bear fruit in 2027 after the technology enters volume production, it said, adding that the tech would
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has secured three construction permits for its plan to build a state-of-the-art A14 wafer fab in Taichung, and is likely to start construction soon, the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau said yesterday. Speaking with CNA, Wang Chun-chieh (王俊傑), deputy director general of the science park bureau, said the world’s largest contract chipmaker has received three construction permits — one to build a fab to roll out sophisticated chips, another to build a central utility plant to provide water and electricity for the facility and the other to build three office buildings. With the three permits, TSMC
YEAR-END BOOST: The holiday shopping season in the US and Europe, combined with rising demand for AI applications, is expected to drive exports to a new high, the NDC said Taiwan’s business climate monitor improved last month, transitioning from steady growth for the first time in five months, as robust global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products and new iPhone shipments boosted exports and corporate sales, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. The council uses a five-color system to measure the nation’s economic state, with “green” indicating steady growth, “red” suggesting a boom and “blue” reflecting a recession. “Yellow-red” and “yellow-blue” suggest a transition to a stronger or weaker condition. The total score of the monitor’s composite index rose to 35 points from a revised 31 in August, ending a four-month
RSS