Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday unveiled her blueprint for transforming Taiwan into a “smart country” by increasing government investment in information and software technology and revolutionizing related infrastructure and regulations to apply smart governance to various aspects of the nation.
Hung’s campaign team called the policy proposal “Taiwan 4.0.”
“It is from Taiwan 1.0, or the post-war 1950s, during which the baby boomers were born and strived to survive, through Taiwan 2.0, the era of development from 1960 to the ’80s, to Taiwan 3.0, the period of democratization and globalization from 1990 to 2010,” the team said.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“While people can now easily get hold of information with the aid of technology, such as the ubiquitous smartphone, the government — from local to central — still operates in the 20th century,” Hung said.
Poor government efficiency can be seen in public misgivings about food safety, water quality after the recent typhoon and the rising incidence of dengue fever, she said.
“It is not the fault of the rank-and-file civil servants; the whole institution needs re-evaluation and enhancement in five aspects: regulatory revisions, such as the legislation of a basic information law that could fill information manpower in each government level; increased government investment in information and software technology; launch of 5G networks; open data; and the development of mobile payment services,” Hung said.
Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘), executive general of KMT think tank the National Policy Foundation, said that a smart government should be able to adopt big data, cloud computing and the Internet of Things to provide solutions to issues such as food safety, long-distance caregiving, transportation, disease control and river revitalization.
“Hardware took up 51 percent of our investment in technology in 2013, while information and software technology made up the other 49 percent. That compares with ratios of 26:74 for Europe and North America and 41:59 for the Asia-Pacific region,” Yiin said.
“Our expenditure on information and software technology as a percentage of GDP was 0.9 percent in 2013, which pales in comparison with an average of 1.11 percent for the Asia-Pacific region and 2.47 percent for Europe and North America,” Yiin said.
Hung said that spending on information and software technology should be further increased to at least 2 percent of GDP.
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