Taipei City Mayor Hau Lung-bin yesterday inaugurated the 2007 Intelligent Cities Forum on information and communication technology (ICT) to facilitate exchanges among international digital cities.
Through the forum, "participants can exchange knowledge and experience of ICT applications, discuss trends in digital cities, and consider models of collaboration among cities," said Hau in his opening remarks.
As part of the forum, representatives from Tokyo, Jakarta, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, and the Asian Network of Major Cities 21 (ANMC21) joined Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) officials, as well as government officials, academics, and industry leaders in participating in the first-ever ICT Joint Project.
Proposed by the Taipei City Government, the joint project focuses on e-government, bridging digital divides, mobile applications for public services, and knowledge management in the public sector.
Aimed at building an e-country and a "Hi-tech Services Island," Shieh Lon-fon, technical specialist with the Industrial Development Bureau, discussed "M-Taiwan" (Mobile Taiwan) Initiatives.
The goals of these initiatives are to build up business opportunities for the "5C industry" (communication, computer, control, consumer, and content), create a wireless Internet environment, and strengthen the IT infrastructure and service.
M-Taiwan integrates planning across ministries and programs, said Shieh, adding that the initial phase of large-scale M-Taiwan projects in southern, central, and eastern regions of Taiwan will be completed by June of this year.
According to Hsieh, the purpose of M-Taiwan is to build a wireless broadband network environment where users can access rich digital content anywhere and anytime.
Taipei has already made great strides in the ICT arena. Just last year, ICF named Taipei the "Intelligent Community of the Year" in recognition of Taipei's initiatives in CyberCity initiatives.
To show one of the reasons for the city to receive this honorific, Frank Sung, chief secretary of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC), discussed Taiwan's e-government experience.
Among the major achievements of RDEC's efforts to promote e-government since 1997, Sung said 85 percent of government agencies now have websites, and more than 2,500 government services are provided around-the-clock and year-round.
But he recognized that there is much to do, citing for example the digital divide that still remains in farming and aboriginal counties. Sung said the RDEC is working to establish more tele-centers in those areas that offer computer and Internet services to bridge this gap.
Looking towards the future, Sung said the next stage is to move towards an "i-government" approach characterized by five i's: integrated, innovative, instant, interactive, and individual.
Three major applications that the RDEC is working on are e-housekeeper, e-helper, and e-servant, to provide government to citizens, government to business, and government to government services, respectively.
Formed in 2000, the ANMC21 is a body that represents the interests of 11 Asian capital cities on themes such as urban planning, sustainability and crisis management.
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