Minister of Digital Affairs Huang Yen-nun (黃彥男) yesterday presented his plan to increase the value of Taiwan’s digital market economy to more than NT$1 trillion (US$30.98 billion) within two years.
The Ministry of Digital Affairs’ role is to encourage profit, and as such, its policies should be geared toward assisting with industrial growth, Huang said in an interview with the Chinese-language Central News Agency.
With a global focus on the digital economy, Taiwan should play to its strengths, which would be industries related to artificial intelligence (AI), he said, adding that they remain his priority.
Photo: CNA
Huang said he has three main policies, the first of which is fostering AI “eco-parks” as government measures to develop a digital economy.
He has discussed with National Development Council Director-General Paul Liu (劉鏡清) what incentives would attract foreign and local AI companies to invest in such parks, Huang said.
While the policy is still under discussion, the goal is to have one eco-park in the south and one in the north of the nation, he said, adding that the ministry considers this a vital policy point and hopes to complete all planning by the end of the year.
The ministry is encouraging the Taiwanese information security industry to seek opportunities abroad, Huang said.
Taiwan’s strengths lie in combining software and hardware in one cohesive product, for example, possibly by integrating information security with the Internet of Things, which would help create a digitally secure cloud service that users feel more secure using, he said.
“Software is everything in the future,” Huang said, adding that Taiwan would acquire significant business if it could create packaged solutions applicable to the agricultural, medical and manufacturing sectors.
The second policy is to prevent scamming by having the ministry create a Web site that identifies whether a number belongs to scammers, he said.
The third is to build up information security resilience, Huang said.
He has been sent proposals to amend the Cybersecurity Management Act (資通安全法), which would empower the ministry’s Administration for Cyber Security to inspect the level of information security at government offices, Huang said.
Backing up information to the cloud should be encouraged, and encryption technology, including quantum encoding, should be further researched and utilized, Huang said.
The ministry hopes to popularize the concept of “zero trust” and the use of multifactor authentication technologies, which would significantly deter hackers from accessing internal networks even if a password is leaked, he said.
Asked about the US demanding that ByteDance Ltd (字節跳動) divest TikTok’s US assets or face a ban, Huang said that Taiwan would not take the lead on implementing similar policies, but would continue to monitor developments.
However, he said he “hoped it would come to fruition,” as Taiwan could link to TikTok’s US servers.
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
‘ONE BRIDGE’: The US president-elect met with Akie Abe on Dec. 15 in Florida and the two discussed a potential Taiwan-China conflict’s implications for world peace US president-elect Donald Trump has described Taiwan as “a major issue for world peace” during a meeting with Akie Abe, the widow of late Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, Japanese newspaper the Yomiuri Shimbun quoted sources as saying in a report yesterday. Trump met with Akie Abe on Dec. 15 at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where the two discussed the Russo-Ukrainian war and the situation in the Taiwan Strait. During the meeting, Trump spoke on the implications for world peace of a potential Taiwan-China conflict, which “indicated his administration’s stance of placing importance on dealing with the situation in
QUICK LOOK: The amendments include stricter recall requirements and Constitutional Court procedures, as well as a big increase in local governments’ budgets Portions of controversial amendments to tighten requirements for recalling officials and Constitutional Court procedures were passed by opposition lawmakers yesterday following clashes between lawmakers in the morning, as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members tried to block Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators from entering the chamber. Parts of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) and Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) passed the third reading yesterday. The legislature was still voting on various amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) as of press time last night, after the session was extended to midnight. Amendments to Article 4
ALLIANCE: Washington continues to implement its policy of normalizing arms sales to Taiwan and helps enhance its defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said US President Joe Biden on Friday agreed to provide US$571.3 million in defense support for Taiwan, the White House said, while the US State Department approved the potential sale of US$265 million in military equipment. Biden had delegated to the secretary of state the authority “to direct the drawdown of up to US$571.3 million in defense articles and services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training, to provide assistance to Taiwan,” the White House said in a statement. However, it did not provide specific details about this latest package, which was the third of its kind to
RSS