President William Lai (賴清德) at a tech expo about healthy aging on Friday praised Taiwan’s strengths in healthcare and technology for being able to provide a new economic opportunity.
Lai said Taiwan can make good use of its competitiveness in the technology and healthcare services sectors to “create a new industrial path” and serve as an experimental market for international innovative technology.
“Taiwan’s life expectancy is about 80 or so years old, but records show that the average Taiwanese spend about one-tenth of their lives, or eight years, requiring care for health issues,” he said.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
A former physician himself, Lai said one of his presidential campaign promises was a “healthy Taiwan,” aimed at promoting good health for the public and making healthcare technology one of the country’s strengths.
Companies and research institutes participating in the expo are showcasing their new services and products utilizing digital technologies.
The Industrial Technology Research Institute, for example, had a care solution which uses image recognition technology to distinguish changes in an older person’s movements and cognitive behavior.
There were also information and communication technology (ICT) companies with artificial intelligence (AI)-related exhibits, such as Acer using AI to evaluate a person’s risk of osteoporosis and Compal detecting possible depression and dementia with the technology.
Taiwan would become a super-aged society by next year, meaning that more than 4.68 million, or 20 percent of its population, would be aged 65 or older, Institute for Biotechnology and Medicine Industry adviser Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) said.
An estimated 35 percent of the labor force (under the age of 65) would have to quit their jobs to take care of their aged family members, he said.
It is therefore urgent for Taiwan to develop a health industry founded on technology to meet the challenge and serve the “silver economy,” Shen said, referring to markets catering to the needs of older people.
Such an industry could also support the ministry’s policy to attract foreign tourists, including those coming for medical tourism, especially from neighboring countries such as Japan, South Korea and other Southeast Asian nations, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said.
Taiwan can leverage its advantages in AI and ICT to build a health industry ecosystem encompassing dietary management, sports management, prognosis and rehabilitation, Kuo said.
The expo is taking place until today at the Taipei World Trade Center’s Exhibition Hall 1.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS