The ministry of digital development is expected to open as early as the first quarter of this year, after the legislature on Dec. 28 approved the Cabinet’s plan to establish the new body.
This is good news. Developing a digital economy is an effective way for advanced countries to enhance their power, and it has become a major part of the nation’s strategy to promote industry.
The ministry, as a dedicated and specialist organization, is expected to play a pivotal role in coordinating the development of the digital economy and assisting all sectors in this transformation. The task is difficult, but crucial.
The question of where this new authority should be located must be considered carefully.
For an example of the thorny issue of location, look no further than the member list of the 16th Executive Yuan Human Rights Protection Task Force.
Appointed in August last year, 13 members of the group are from the private sector. Although these experts are leaders in their fields, in terms of geographical distribution, they are all based in Taipei or New Taipei City, with the southernmost affiliated institution, National Taipei University, in New Taipei City’s Sanxia District (三峽).
No human rights experts or academics based further south of the Taipei area were invited to join the task force. This Taipei-centric tunnel vision is disturbing.
During the COVID-19 pandemic era, companies across Taiwan and around the world have been waking up to the benefits of having employees working from home, and they are able to do this through digital technology.
This trend started many years ago, but the pandemic was a catalyst, and the phenomenon of remote working has become an irreversible trend.
It is therefore possible to recruit specialists living anywhere in the nation, not just in the north. As the primary promoter of digital national power development, those responsible for selecting the site of the ministry of digital development should be more forward thinking.
If those in power continue to only prioritize the nation’s capital, as seen with the human rights task force, and continue to establish new authorities or institutions in Taipei for the “convenience” of the government and top party officials based there, what can Taiwanese expect from the ministry of digital development?
Lo Cheng-chung is a professor and director of Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology’s Institute of Financial and Economic Law.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
The saga of Sarah Dzafce, the disgraced former Miss Finland, is far more significant than a mere beauty pageant controversy. It serves as a potent and painful contemporary lesson in global cultural ethics and the absolute necessity of racial respect. Her public career was instantly pulverized not by a lapse in judgement, but by a deliberate act of racial hostility, the flames of which swiftly encircled the globe. The offensive action was simple, yet profoundly provocative: a 15-second video in which Dzafce performed the infamous “slanted eyes” gesture — a crude, historically loaded caricature of East Asian features used in Western
Is a new foreign partner for Taiwan emerging in the Middle East? Last week, Taiwanese media reported that Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) secretly visited Israel, a country with whom Taiwan has long shared unofficial relations but which has approached those relations cautiously. In the wake of China’s implicit but clear support for Hamas and Iran in the wake of the October 2023 assault on Israel, Jerusalem’s calculus may be changing. Both small countries facing literal existential threats, Israel and Taiwan have much to gain from closer ties. In his recent op-ed for the Washington Post, President William
A stabbing attack inside and near two busy Taipei MRT stations on Friday evening shocked the nation and made headlines in many foreign and local news media, as such indiscriminate attacks are rare in Taiwan. Four people died, including the 27-year-old suspect, and 11 people sustained injuries. At Taipei Main Station, the suspect threw smoke grenades near two exits and fatally stabbed one person who tried to stop him. He later made his way to Eslite Spectrum Nanxi department store near Zhongshan MRT Station, where he threw more smoke grenades and fatally stabbed a person on a scooter by the roadside.
Taiwan-India relations appear to have been put on the back burner this year, including on Taiwan’s side. Geopolitical pressures have compelled both countries to recalibrate their priorities, even as their core security challenges remain unchanged. However, what is striking is the visible decline in the attention India once received from Taiwan. The absence of the annual Diwali celebrations for the Indian community and the lack of a commemoration marking the 30-year anniversary of the representative offices, the India Taipei Association and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center, speak volumes and raise serious questions about whether Taiwan still has a coherent India
RSS