This year’s Computex exhibition in Taipei concluded its second to last day yesterday with calls for more Taiwanese-Japanese cooperation from Japanese participants at two technical forums presented by Japanese IT consortiums, which were attended by many Taiwanese company representatives who sought business collaborations.
Elsewhere, players were battling it out in the final rounds of computer game and computer overclocking competitions.
International and Taiwanese investors, IT managers and technicians in the past week converged on Computex, which is to wrap up this evening at the Taipei World Trade Center (TWTC) exhibition hall, and the Nangang Exhibition Center.
Photo courtesy of ATEN International Co.
The venues are open to the general public today: a NT$200 ticket grants entry to all areas and events, including an exhibit for start-ups at TWTC Hall 3.
In the two last technical forums yesterday, the focus was on Internet of Things (IoT) solutions and electronics telecommunication development in Japan.
As they painted a roadmap of the future and shared trend forecasts, Japanese company representatives called for more business partnerships and for forging an alliance with Taiwan’s IT industry.
Managers and engineers from Japanese tech giants NEC and Hitachi presented their research and work development work on Internet of Things and Embedded Technology, as well as new advances in artificial intelligence and robot operating systems, followed by presentations by officials from the Japan Embedded Systems Technology Association (JASA) and JTB Group’s communication design unit.
Hiroshi Kotada from JASA said many Japanese technology companies are pursuing the next stages of IoT, fog computing and edge computing, as well as the development of “Industry 4.0”, which will open up huge business opportunities around the world.
“There will be a large demand for IT technicians, designers and project managers for these new IoT and computing technologies,” Kotada said. “Japan’s big business consortiums and small-to-medium enterprises all realize that there will be talent shortages in these sectors in the coming years,” Kotada said.
Japan has good basic fundamentals and has laid down a framework for the coming industry trends, he said, adding that those would be driven by IoT, robotics, artificial intelligence and other new IT and computing technologies that would completely change people’s lifestyles and the ways they work.
“Robotics and artificial intelligence will bring on new modes of production and change people’s jobs and the traditional workplace,” he said.
“IoT and its related computing technologies will bring on Industry 4.0 … We are witnessing [a] new industrial revolution in our lifetime,” Kotada said.
“Right now, we already have lots of Taiwanese companies working in partnership with counterparts in Japan on these new technology trends. For these developments, enterprises in Taiwan and Japan can collaborate on programs and joint ventures to cultivate the big demand for human talent, for new research directions, and [to] forge partnership for supply chain production,” he said.
“To keep on top of these new trends and changes in IoT technology, Taiwan and Japan must work together to complement each other’s industrial needs and capacity, and therefore to become the leading forces and continue to stay competitive [to take advantage of] new business opportunities around the world in the coming years,” he added.
Meanwhile, visitors looking for relaxation were treated to international teams clashing in the final rounds of the Zotac Cup videogames competition, playing Defense of the Ancients 2, a popular multiplayer online battle video game, and cheered on contestants at the Computer Overclocking World Cup grand final, where the winner took home US$10,000 in prize money.
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper