Chiayi, Tainan and Taoyuan have been named among the top seven Intelligent Communities for 2018, the New York-based think tank Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) said on Thursday.
The other four nominees in the list are Ipswich, Australia, Hamilton and Winnipeg, Canada, and Espoo, Finland, the forum said.
The forum said that one of the seven cities will be chosen as the Intelligent Community of the Year to succeed Melbourne, which was the top city last year.
The award is to be announced in London at the Intelligent Community Forum’s Annual Summit, held from June 4 to June 6.
“The successor to Melbourne will come from one of four countries this year,” ICF cofounder Louis Zacharilla said in a statement on the think tank’s Web site.
“Even though these places are diverse and spread across the world, they share an emphatic effort to use broadband, open data and other digital tools to humanize policy and remove anxiety from daily life,” Zacharilla said.
The seven cities were selected from the world’s Smart21 Communities of 2018, named by the ICF in October last year, referring to 21 cities, counties and rural communities that have applied digital tools to building local societies so that they can prosper in an age of “digital disruption.”
It was the first time Tainan was named among the top seven cities, while Chiayi was nominated for a second time, and Taoyuan for a third time.
Taipei and Taichung were awarded the title in 2006 and 2013, respectively.
Candidates are evaluated based on six major indicators: broadband environment, knowledge workforce, innovation ability, digital equality, intelligent environmental sustainability and advocacy for positive change in an intelligent community.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is aware that Beijing’s treatment of Hong Kong has weakened any possible sentiment for a “one country, two systems” arrangement for Taiwan, and has instructed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) politburo member Wang Huning (王滬寧) to develop new ways of defining cross-strait relations, Japanese news magazine Nikkei Asia reported on Thursday. A former professor of international politics at Fu Dan University, Wang is expected to develop a dialogue that could serve as the foundation for cross-strait unification, and Xi plans to use the framework to support a fourth term as president, Nikkei Asia quoted an anonymous source
A senior US senator on Monday questioned the willingness of some US allies to help defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion. Although Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) expects the US and Japan to respond in a war in the Taiwan Strait, he was “a little less confident what our other allies would do,” US Senator John Cornyn said. Australia and New Zealand have voiced support for Taiwan, but it “is a far cry from committing troops to repel an invasion,” Cornyn said during a discussion on China, Russia and the state of US military readiness at a forum hosted
TOURISM BOOST: The transportation system could help attract more visitors to the area, as the line is to connect multiple cultural sites, a city councilor said Residents in New Taipei City’s Ankeng District (安坑) said the local light rail system might have a positive influence, but raised questions about its practicality. The Ankeng light rail system, which is to commence operations after the Lunar New Year holiday, would cut travel time for commuters from Ankeng to downtown Taipei or New Taipei City by 15 to 20 minutes, the city government said. According to the initial plan, there would be one train every 15 minutes during peak time and additional interval trains would run between the densely populated Ankang Station (安康) and Shisizhang Station (十 四張). To encourage people to
LUCKY DATE: The man picked the 10th ‘Super Red Envelope’ in a lottery store in Taoyuan’s Jhongli because he broke up with his girlfriend on Jan. 10 A man who recently broke up with his girlfriend won a NT$1 million (US$32,929) prize in the “NT$20 million Super Red Envelope” lottery after picking a card based on the date of their breakup, Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The man, in his 20s, bought the 10th ticket at a lottery store in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢), because he broke up with his girlfriend on Jan. 10, the store owner told the lottery company. The “Super Red Envelope” lottery was a limited offering by the company during the Lunar New Year holiday, which ended yesterday. The cards, which cost NT$2,000 each, came with
RSS