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.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to