IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Taiwan International Ports Corporation (TIPC)’s Smart Port Vision Pavilion at this year’s 2024 Smart City Summit and Expo exhibition, held from March 21st to 23rd at the Kaohsiung Exhibition Center, reflected the exhibition’s digital x green transformation theme. The pavilion shared the results of the Taiwan ports’ Trans-SMART 2.0 Plan, introduced the joint TIPC Chunghwa Telecom 5G AIoT-based 24/7 Smart Harbor & Coastal Surveillance System Verification Project, presented new sensor technology for a 5G-integrated logistics network, and demonstrated a 24/7 IoT-based oil pollution surveillance system and an autonomous surface vehicle designed to collect and dispose of waste floating in harbor waters. These innovations would help to raise the effectiveness of port water area management and infuse new vitality into port city sustainability.

According to BloombergNEF's recent study, the need for smarter and greener cities is greater than ever since the focus of city officials has honed in on net-zero carbon goals and COVID-19 impacts. To address worsening pollution, public health, security, and other issues, digital technology can help create more sustainable cities. Examples of such issues and technological solutions were discussed at Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona. With support from Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), Taiwan has implemented 223 Smart City projects which make use of various technologies and innovative solutions to improve important aspects of communities, including governance, healthcare, transportation, agriculture and more.

As 5G is commercialized more widely, lampposts are turned into micro base stations in cities. These smart poles are equipped with five major systems: 5G communication, smart pole management, AIoT applications, AI transport law enforcement, and edge computers. Huang Chung-yu, CTO at Pegatron, said lampposts provide the power the smart system needs, and they are right by the side of the road. These roadside smart lampposts, or smart poles, are small 5G base stations and they will be an indispensable part of the smart city.

Aetina, a Taiwanese provider of AI solutions, will showcase its edge AI solutions at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona from November 5-7, 2024.

The company will highlight its DeviceEdge series, featuring the Aetina In-Vehicle System and SuperEdge AI Inference system, designed for smart city and transportation applications.

The e-Gate system, which can be used by citizens 14 years and over with valid passports and registered biometric data, was officially put into operation at international airports in Taoyuan County, Taipei and Kaohsiung and at the Kinmen Seaport after trial runs.

Taipei residents do not want smart city efforts based on ‘centralized control, tracking and mass surveillance,’ the campaign’s initiators said

Taipei City Councilor Miao Po-ya (苗博雅) yesterday said that her campaign against the Taipeipass (台北通) app has garnered almost 10,000 signatures since Friday, but exposed her to insults and threats by telephone and through social media.

In one prominent international ranking of how well municipalities have developed themselves into smart cities, Taipei is positioned in eighth place, while in another it is 26th. One survey gives Taipei its highest score for environmental policies, and another considers it one of its lowest.

The discrepancy reflects the arbitrary nature of these indices and the imprecision with which the term “smart city” tends to be discussed. Debates about communities have been turned into a technological competition, mostly concerned with products best able to extract value on the margins of society.

Following its success in Vietnam, Chunghwa Telecom is teaming up with state-owned CAT Telecom of Thailand to develop smart city-related applications

Chunghwa Telecom Co (CHT, 中華電信), the nation’s biggest telecom operator, yesterday said that it has inked a memorandum of understanding with CAT Telecom PCL to develop smart city services in Thailand as part of renewed efforts to explore new revenue sources in emerging Southeast Asian markets.

The Kaohsiung City Government held a smart application results announcements and presentations at the Kaohsiung Exhibition Hall on the 15th, and at the same time kicked off the 2022 Smart City Summit & Expo in Kaohsiung, according to Institute for Information Industry. Minister Kung Ming-Hsin of National Development Council stated that the two major factors of international cooperation with Taiwan are semiconductors and smart cities. Kaohsiung is on the global trend. At present, TSMC, semiconductor equipment and materials manufacturers have successively entered Kaohsiung, which was unimaginable a year and a half ago. Kaohsiung plays a very important role in the promotion of smart cities. It has become a hub for Taiwan's output in smart cities. It not only replicates the successful model to Southeast Asian countries, but also moves forward in Europe and the world.

The organizational structure of the government must be updated in response to social, political and economic changes so it can lead society to keep up with the trends of the time.

Now that the Internet has developed into a major social sphere, and digital technology is an inseparable part of industry and society, the Executive Yuan’s decision to establish a digital development ministry is necessary and correct.

Kaohsiung City promotes smart city development through digital technologies to provide citizens with better living conditions, attract high-tech investment and talent, and enable local companies to grow together. In 2022, Kaohsiung City received numerous international smart city awards, from the APEC ESCI Best Practices Award - Low Carbon Model Towns Gold Award, the IDC Smart City Asia Pacific Awards (SCAPA), and many others. This demonstrates that Kaohsiung's transportation, agriculture, low-carbon measures, and sustainable development have caught the world's attention and created enticing opportunities for the international market to invest in Kaohsiung.

Charles Lin, Deputy Mayor of Kaohsiung has been actively involved in promoting the development of smart cities in Taiwan and has been recognized for his contributions to this field.

One of the questions asked to Mr. Lin was which countries, aside from Taiwan, have made significant progress towards establishing smart cities. In response, Mr. Lin noted that many cities around the world are claiming to be working towards becoming smart cities. However, he emphasized that there are several components that need to be set up for a city to truly be considered smart.

A month ago, the first self-driving bus operations begun its three-month trial in the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan. It is the first revenue-generating service of autonomous rapid transit (ART) project supported by the central and local governments. The goal is to launch commercial operation across the country in 2021.

“Autonomous technology will lead a revolutionary change to the city’s transportation systems,” said Huang Wei-Cher, Mayor of Tainan. “The smart transportation initiative will help us improve overall road safety, operational efficiency, and rural area transportation services.”

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and the National Immigration Agency (NIA) yesterday jointly announced that a total of seven sets of the newly-introduced system will be first tested at the Shuitou Port (水頭港) in Kinmen, one of the entry-points for passengers making use of the Mini Three links.

Once the trial runs are successful in the outlying island, the scheme will later be expanded to two airports in northern Taiwan, Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei Songshan Airport, and Kaohsiung International Airport in the south.

The Taiwan government will hold a new round of discussions next week on a proposal to digitalize National Health Insurance (NHI) information so that an actual card will no longer be required, Minister without Portfolio Audrey Tang (唐鳳) said Thursday.

Tang, who is responsible for the government's digital technology portfolio, said the idea is for NHI members to have their medical information stored on their cellphones or other devices.

Smart city indicator tools have become essential for governments around the world to measure the effectiveness and competitiveness of their smart city initiatives. These tools range from globally recognized frameworks, such as the IMD Smart City Index, to indicators tailored to national and cultural contexts, such as Japan's SCI-Japan Liveable Well-Being City Index or the Thailand Smart City Competitiveness Index by the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA). These systems are crucial in supporting policy formulation and guiding strategic initiatives for smart city development.

The National Development Council said it has instructed government agencies at all levels to remove at least half of the apps developed during former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) terms due to their low user numbers and poor reviews.

Following Ma’s “e-Government” initiative, government agencies developed 278 apps and 396 Web sites from 2012 to 2014.

The e-gates are now available for inbound and outbound Republic of China passport holders aged 14 and older and at least 140cm tall at the three airports, expediting the immigration process, adding that passengers could still elect to go through manned checkpoints.

Intelligent City Forum of New Taipei City took place today. John G. Jung, Chairman and co-founder of the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF), Brenda Halloran, Mayor of the City of Waterloo, and Steve Reneker, Chief Information Officer of the City of Riverside met with New Taipei City Mayor Eric Liluan Chu to share their experience in intelligent and future city development. Waterloo is a city in Ontario, Canada, and was named to the world's top intelligent community for 2007. Riverside is in California and has been named to the ICF's Top Seven Intelligent Communities for three consecutive years. The forum gathers more than 200 local and overseas participants to help develop New Taipei City into a more intelligent city.

On December 25, under the announcement of Kaohsiung City Mayor Chen Chi-Mai, the Kaohsiung Smart City Committee was established. The committee is composed of leaders from the government, industry, universities, research institutes and Institute for Information Industry including Digital Minister Audrey Tang from the Executive Yuan, Lee-Feng Chien Board Member of the Board of Science and Technology, Executive Yuan, and senior executives from AWS, Microsoft, Siemens, IBM, ASE Group, Advantech, ChungHwa Telecom, FET, III among others.

Chairperson Dr. Kung Ming-Hsin of the National Development Council specifically expressed his support. He said that the living environment in Kaohsiung is similar to that of the new southbound countries and it is easier to establish contact with the southbound market. Dr. Kung further suggested that as smart cities enter the 5G era, it would create new opportunities for innovative smart applications and systems. Kaohsiung can offer its unique environment and industrial setup as a preferred POC test field and transforms into a gateway for export to new southbound countries.