Minister of Digital Affairs Huang Yen-nun (黃彥男) yesterday presented his plan to increase the value of Taiwan’s digital market economy to more than NT$1 trillion (US$30.98 billion) within two years.
The Ministry of Digital Affairs’ role is to encourage profit, and as such, its policies should be geared toward assisting with industrial growth, Huang said in an interview with the Chinese-language Central News Agency.
With a global focus on the digital economy, Taiwan should play to its strengths, which would be industries related to artificial intelligence (AI), he said, adding that they remain his priority.
Photo: CNA
Huang said he has three main policies, the first of which is fostering AI “eco-parks” as government measures to develop a digital economy.
He has discussed with National Development Council Director-General Paul Liu (劉鏡清) what incentives would attract foreign and local AI companies to invest in such parks, Huang said.
While the policy is still under discussion, the goal is to have one eco-park in the south and one in the north of the nation, he said, adding that the ministry considers this a vital policy point and hopes to complete all planning by the end of the year.
The ministry is encouraging the Taiwanese information security industry to seek opportunities abroad, Huang said.
Taiwan’s strengths lie in combining software and hardware in one cohesive product, for example, possibly by integrating information security with the Internet of Things, which would help create a digitally secure cloud service that users feel more secure using, he said.
“Software is everything in the future,” Huang said, adding that Taiwan would acquire significant business if it could create packaged solutions applicable to the agricultural, medical and manufacturing sectors.
The second policy is to prevent scamming by having the ministry create a Web site that identifies whether a number belongs to scammers, he said.
The third is to build up information security resilience, Huang said.
He has been sent proposals to amend the Cybersecurity Management Act (資通安全法), which would empower the ministry’s Administration for Cyber Security to inspect the level of information security at government offices, Huang said.
Backing up information to the cloud should be encouraged, and encryption technology, including quantum encoding, should be further researched and utilized, Huang said.
The ministry hopes to popularize the concept of “zero trust” and the use of multifactor authentication technologies, which would significantly deter hackers from accessing internal networks even if a password is leaked, he said.
Asked about the US demanding that ByteDance Ltd (字節跳動) divest TikTok’s US assets or face a ban, Huang said that Taiwan would not take the lead on implementing similar policies, but would continue to monitor developments.
However, he said he “hoped it would come to fruition,” as Taiwan could link to TikTok’s US servers.
UKRAINE, NVIDIA: The US leader said the subject of Russia’s war had come up ‘very strongly,’ while Jenson Huang was hoping that the conversation was good Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and US President Donald Trump had differing takes following their meeting in Busan, South Korea, yesterday. Xi said that the two sides should complete follow-up work as soon as possible to deliver tangible results that would provide “peace of mind” to China, the US and the rest of the world, while Trump hailed the “great success” of the talks. The two discussed trade, including a deal to reduce tariffs slapped on China for its role in the fentanyl trade, as well as cooperation in ending the war in Ukraine, among other issues, but they did not mention
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi yesterday lavished US President Donald Trump with praise and vows of a “golden age” of ties on his visit to Tokyo, before inking a deal with Washington aimed at securing critical minerals. Takaichi — Japan’s first female prime minister — pulled out all the stops for Trump in her opening test on the international stage and even announced that she would nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize, the White House said. Trump has become increasingly focused on the Nobel since his return to power in January and claims to have ended several conflicts around the world,
CALL FOR SUPPORT: President William Lai called on lawmakers across party lines to ensure the livelihood of Taiwanese and that national security is protected President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for bipartisan support for Taiwan’s investment in self-defense capabilities at the christening and launch of two coast guard vessels at CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard in Kaohsiung. The Taipei (台北) is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels, and the Siraya (西拉雅) is the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) first-ever ocean patrol vessel, the government said. The Taipei is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels with a displacement of about 4,000 tonnes, Lai said. This ship class was ordered as a result of former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 2018
GLOBAL PROJECT: Underseas cables ‘are the nervous system of democratic connectivity,’ which is under stress, Member of the European Parliament Rihards Kols said The government yesterday launched an initiative to promote global cooperation on improved security of undersea cables, following reported disruptions of such cables near Taiwan and around the world. The Management Initiative on International Undersea Cables aims to “bring together stakeholders, align standards, promote best practices and turn shared concerns into beneficial cooperation,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said at a seminar in Taipei. The project would be known as “RISK,” an acronym for risk mitigation, information sharing, systemic reform and knowledge building, he said at the seminar, titled “Taiwan-Europe Subsea Cable Security Cooperation Forum.” Taiwan sits at a vital junction on