Taitung is Taiwan’s third-largest county by area and home to 224,000 people. Spread across the mountainous southeast coast of the island, it was a thinly-populated economic backwater through most of the 20th Century, while the northwest coastal plains became the center of Taiwan’s remarkable economic rise. Agriculture and tourism are its dominant industries. Because it was the last region of Taiwan settled by the Han Chinese in the 19th Century, it has also retained much aboriginal culture, which makes its own contribution to tourism.

Smart Infrastructure

Like most isolated rural regions, the county was underserved by broadband – until county government engaged in a major drive to deploy wireless infrastructure. Through negotiation, persuasion and investment, the county accomplished what seemed impossible: deployment of 250 hotspots in just over four months to achieve 100% availability for residents and businesses. County leaders recognized, however, that deployment was only the beginning. It set up a major public education program and a 24-hour hotline to help people get online. The effort succeeded: calls to the hotline gradually declined from 200 per month to single digits and public satisfaction reached nearly 80% in a 2015 survey. By September 2015, there were more than 100,000 subscribers to the “TT-Free” service in a county with a population of only 224,000. Vision Magazine placed Taitung County at the top of its list of counties for “smart infrastructure.”

Boosting Local Industry

The county was quick to put the network to use for economic development. It created a Smart Travel Service Plan that aggregated its own data with third-party services like TripAdvisor in a single mobile portal available on the app stores in multiple languages. It also helped six major tourist sites to install systems that generate constantly updated guide maps and navigation tips that can be pushed to the phones of tourists. One of the county’s biggest events is a hot air balloon festival, which attracted 350,000 tourists in 2011. Just one year later, attendance jumped to 830,000. The major tour sites of Taitung received six million visitors in 2013, up 44% from 2009. While the number of hotels grew, the average occupancy rate also leaped to third in the nation. Developments like these caused the outflow of population from the county to reverse for the first time in years in 2014.

The county also has a long cultural and industry legacy in woodworking. Working with industry, universities, researchers and the national government, it is now planning a Maker Park to help entrepreneurs apply technology to launch innovative woodworking businesses.

New Model for Service Delivery

The network also helps Taitung County better serve residents and businesses. There was once only one county office, located in the city of Taitung, to which many residents had to travel long distances. Through the network, the county has made available more than 200 services online and provides access at 15 township offices. County staff even go to the homes of elderly and disabled residents with tablets to deliver services and information. During typhoon season, prevailing winds blow from the south, which puts Taitung County on the front lines. To help with disaster preparation, the county has created a real-time decision support system that mines data on past typhoons to help predict where incoming storms will have the greatest impact, so that emergency resources can be pre-positioned where they will do the most good.

The county’s experience illustrates vividly how rural areas can use broadband and information technology to overcome the traditional barriers of distance and isolation and find new economic relevance in the broadband economy.

Population: 224,470

Website: www.taitung.gov.tw/en

Smart21 2015 | 2016 | 2024

Taipei is no stranger to technology-based development. This city of 2.6 million people is the world's largest producer of laptop and notebook computers and computer motherboards. The Taipei Technology Corridor consists of two major science and technology parks, with a third one in development, that currently employ more than 85,000 knowledge workers in 2,200 companies with combined annual revenues in 2004 of nearly US$53 billion. Taipei is also one of the world's top three cities for broadband deployment, with PCs in 88% of homes and 77% of households connected to ADSL service. Where hardware and infrastructure is concerned, Taipei is justly proud of being a global leader.

Running Faster

For Taipei, the challenge of the 21st Century is to run faster in a fast world. It is to maintain and increase its competitive edge while preparing for a demanding future. As Taipei Metropolitan Government wrote in its application to ICF, "In the past Taipei tended to follow examples from developed countries. Now, Taipei is looking for its own paradigm and value."

Taipei's development as an Intelligent Community began with the election of Mayor Ying-jeou Ma in 1998. Mayor Ma challenged Taipei to become what he called a CyberCity. The first phase of the project (1999-2002) focused on building broadband infrastructure and using the Internet to improve public services. The city invested an average of US$75 million per year to install PCs on the desks of all employees at leading government agencies, deploy a city-wide electronic document system that saved US$7.5 million per year, and create hundreds of online applications ranging from requests for service to complaints about parking violations. An e-schools effort placed at least one PC with broadband connectivity in every classroom, created computer labs in 250 schools and trained teachers in PC and Internet skills. An e-communities project provided free PC and Internet training to 240,000 people and established 800 public Internet kiosks throughout the city. An online Intelligent Transportation System was developed to monitor traffic flow, guide drivers to available parking and improve taxi safety, and an EasyCard multi-function pass for Taipei's Mass Rapid Transit System attracted new riders. To date, the system has issued over 5.7 million cards.

Phase Two Brings Second Top7 Ranking

For these efforts, Taipei was named one of ICF's Top Seven Intelligent Communities of 2003. In 2006, ICF recognizes Taipei for taking its CyberCity program to the next level by making broadband connectivity an essential component of life for its citizens and businesses, and using it to transform the economy of the city.

The second phase of the CyberCity program (2003-2006) has focused on several priorities. The first was to better integrate broadband and online services into citizens' lives. By May 2005, 84% of the government's total document traffic was moving through its electronic document exchange. Its Internet portal was offering over 400 services used by an average of 3,500 citizens per day, and over 5,200 small-to-midsize companies had created Web sites on a free Taipei Business Net portal. In the longer term, Taipei aims to encourage development of better Chinese computer interfaces and expand content and applications suited to Chinese tradition. These advances will not only foster broadband use by citizens but will provide an opportunity for Taipei's companies to more easily access business opportunities in greater China.

Knowledge Workers

A second priority was to shorten the time and resources needed to turn students into productive knowledge workers. The most crucial challenge faced by Taipei's companies is the "last mile" between school and industry. To that end, every four years, over US$93 million is earmarked to fund IT education in Taipei. IT skills are widely taught in elementary schools, high schools and universities as well as business incubators. Microsoft selected Taipei as the world's first location for its Future School Program. Cisco is implementing its Network Academy in Taiwan, which has attracted participation from 79 Taiwanese companies and provided training to 16,000 students. The government has also created Taipei e-University to provide online training in academic theory and hands-on practice, leading to professional certification.

The third priority was to provide an IT-based platform for innovation. In the CyberCity program's second phase, the government deployed a municipal wireless network to mass transit stations and all elementary and middle school campuses, where each class was equipped with its own Web site to facilitate teacher-student communications. Plans call for extending the network to 90% of the city.

Digital Equality

The fourth priority was to use broadband to ensure digital equality. With the encouragement of the government, nonprofit organizations have established 13 community universities that have offered technology and other classes to nearly 220,000 people. Internet kiosks were established at 800 convenience stores and other locations to give citizens access to online services. An e-healthcare initiative has integrated the data systems of 300 municipal hospitals and clinics and provides safety monitoring of elderly and disabled citizens via wristbands.

On New Year's Eve 2004, Mayor Ma and Taiwan's President Chen Shui-ban led the celebration of the opening of Taipei 101, the world's tallest skyscraper and one of the most technologically advanced buildings on earth. It was a fitting symbol for this city of almost limitless ambition, which aims to number among the select few leaders of the Broadband Economy.

In the News
Read the latest updates about Taipei.

Population: 2,622,472

Labor Force: 1,183,000

Website: english.gov.taipei

Intelligent Community of the Year 2006

Smart21 2006

Top7 2004 | 2006

When the city and county of Taichung merged in 2010, it created a huge metropolis uniting completely different economies: a major seaport city where 70% of employees work in services, and a rural county where 50% work in industry and agriculture is a significant source of income.

The city’s leadership, under Mayor Chih-Chiang (Jason) Hu, was determined to create a whole much greater than the sum of its parts.

Spreading Broadband

The city and telecom companies partnered to create thousands of WiFi hotspots, fiber-based broadband and 4G WiMAX now reaching more than 90% of the population. Through imaginative applications developed by public-private partnership, ICT has become a driver of greater global competitiveness.

The backbone of Taichung’s manufacturing economy is a network of 1,500 precision machinery makers and tens of thousands of SME suppliers. Smaller companies now benefit from a shared, cloud-based ERP system that reduces their purchasing costs and time-to-market. An RFID system at the port automates the clearing of shipping containers for exit, slashing the time trucks spend idling at the gate.

Taichung is also helping farmers apply ICT to improve yields and profitability while expanding their international markets.

To power this new economy, the city and its 17 colleges have created a truly lifelong learning system ranging from basic digital education and vocational training to advanced study and continuous skills improvement. And Taichung is aggressively pursuing industrial clustering through development of the Central Taiwan Technology Corridor combining science parks, precision manufacturing parks and software parks to give physical shape to its global ambitions.

In the News
Read the latest updates about Taichung City.

Want to know more about Taichung City?
Taichung City was featured in the Intelligent Community Forum books Brain Gain and Seizing Our Destiny.

Population: 2,746,112

Website: www.taichung.gov.tw

Intelligent Community of the Year 2013

Smart21 2012 | 2013

Top7 2012 | 2013

People have lived along the Tamsui River in what is now New Taipei City (NTPC) for 5,000 years, yet the city is less than 20 years old. It was created in 2010 from 29 administrative districts surrounding Taipei to form a city of more than 4 million residents ringed by majestic mountains and interlaced with two main rivers and six streams.

The region that became NTPC has long been shaped by its relationship with the nation’s capital. The districts included residential areas, and its transport network was oriented to move people and goods into and out of Taipei. It was also home to traditional and often highly polluting industries. Many of them, like ceramics and glass-making, had faced severe competitive pressure from lower-cost countries for decades. While striving to transform individual districts into a unified metropolis, NTPC also faced the need to develop a knowledge-based, technology-centric economy to power its future.

The Future is Digital

Massive investment went into high-speed roads and rails to unite the doughnut-shaped city, but the real focus has been on connectivity. Partnering with the private sector, NTPC has boosted network deployment and promoted cloud-based services for government and business. Carriers now provide broadband with a minimum 100 Mbps to 95% of premises with an adoption rate of 93%.

This core network is supplemented by 4G and 5G mobile and a free Wi-Fi network with more than 2,100 hotspots across the city. Another 20, part of the national I-Tribe program, serve two of the city’s districts that are home to indigenous communities. Through mid-2025, the combined wireless networks have recorded more than 100 million user sessions.

The latest development involves the roll-out of 5G modular smart poles that host street lighting, IoT sensors, cameras, weather sensors and 4G/5G base stations. The technology is expected to reduce long-term infrastructure costs while delivering new levels of service to users.

Knowledge Drives Growth

In just five decades, Taiwan has grown from a producer of low-cost ceramics and electronics into a technology leader whose companies produce most of the world’s semiconductors, mobile phones and computer motherboards. This rate of industrial change has only been possible because the nation and its cities have focused relentlessly on upskilling workers and training new ones.

In 2000, NTPC founded the Labor University, which operates from four centers located near transit or industrial parks. It offers competency courses to maintain proficiency and develop new skills, from foreign languages and accounting to plumbing and electrical repair. Its education courses teach labor law and insurance, dispute mediation, workplace communication and other life and legal issues. By creating a shared understanding among workers and managers, it has been vital in making the workplace harmonious and maintaining high productivity.

The city also operates cooperative education programs for junior high school graduates from low-income families, graduates from technical colleges and unemployed youth and adults. These partnerships among government, educators and industry cover dozens of fields and have helped hundreds of thousands of people find employment and prepare for career advancement.

NTPC brings the same intensity to the delivery of services to citizens. A system called Hot Spots Analysis  draws on posts to the city’s Web portals, the logs of the emergency response center and traffic on social networks to identify issues raised frequently by citizens that are not being properly addressed. Monthly meetings of the heads of all city departments review known and new Hot Spots and determine why problems are not being solved. In one example, citizens repeatedly flagged a lack of enough capacity on express commuter buses to handle rush hour passenger loads. Investigating the issue, the city found that its own regulations required every passenger to have a seat – a safety regulation it was unwilling to abandon. Instead, NTPC negotiated with the bus companies to offer a different service: shuttle buses operating on routes that connected outlying areas to train stations. This encouraged more passengers to take the train, which in turn cut rush-hour wait times on the express bus routes in half.

The city also noted a high level of complaints from its indigenous citizens about receiving education subsidies for their children on time. It did not take long to identify the responsible agency. The Commission ordered the agency to standardize its processes, eliminate unnecessary paperwork and establish deadlines for turnaround. Processing time quickly dropped from an average of 35 days to only 15.

New and Renewed Economy

New Taipiei City is home to five major industrial parks and numerous small and midsize parks with a total of 20,000 factories. Its major industries include information and communications technology, advanced manufacturing, biotech, logistics and finance. While supporting these existing industries, the city has built a strong foundation for startups that can drive future growth.

The Crowdfunding Counseling project is a unique program that provides entrepreneurs with business plan analysis, forecasts of potential outcomes and recommendations for improvement. It then develops a professionally designed crowdfunding campaign to solicit input and funding commitments for the company, as well as connecting it with firms likely to provide a product or service testbed. In its first six years, the city helped nearly 80 startups each crowdsource an average of US$120,000. The sums may not be large, but the demonstration of support and crowd feedback helps startups identify their core value and road-test their messaging early in their development, when it can make the biggest difference.

For more advanced startups, universities offer more than 40 incubators and NTPC operates 10 accelerators. All told, NTPC invests US $1.2 million annually in hardware facilities, consultants, operations and funding support for startups. The programs leverage the dense network of established companies and educational institutions, with established companies seeking access to innovation and startups seeking the reach and funding that corporates can provide.

Engaging People in the Future

A city of more than 4 million people can struggle to connect with its citizens in positive ways, make them feel their needs are known and give them a voice in the future. NTPC developed an online engagement platform called New Taipei Vote. It enables the government and its departments to gather frequent comments and suggestions from a much broader range of citizens than traditional surveys or expert committees could manage. The platform supports surveys, polls, contests and participatory voting on budget decisions. Typically, government posts a topic or proposal tied to funding and asks citizens to weigh in with suggestions. The city then evaluates them and puts them out for vote on the platform. In a recent case, the government invited social welfare proposals from the public in one of its districts. After 16 proposals were received, they went through three stages of review of their feasibility by relevant departments, which accepted or amended them to meet legal and regulatory requirements. The system then offered the public an opportunity to vote on the proposals, of which 8 were selected for completion and funded by the city from its budget. 

The city also makes digital inclusion a priority through free digital training courses under the EZ Learn brand. NTPC created the program in 2019 to offer training classes and Digital Opportunity Centers where visitors can try the latest technologies. Since its founding, the government has created nearly 13,000 course sessions reaching 260,000 people, ranging from basic digital mastery to popular topics such as AI Agents, podcasting and 3D printing. The program hosts parent-child events to which parents bring young children, engage in a gamified activity and leave with a gift such as an Arduino computer board. A Mobile Computer Teaching Bus brings the classroom to thousands of people, and a digital learning platform, introduced during the pandemic, receives an average of 2 million visits per year.

NTPC stands out for the careful alignment of its policies and programs, and how it interconnects projects to multiply their impact. It is particularly striking in such a large city with many departments and a vast workforce. It is also a competitive advantage – one that multiplies the economic impact of the city’s manufacturers, universities, business and technology parks, and will continue to give it a leading position among the world’s Intelligent Communities.

In the News
Read the latest updates about New Taipei City.

Population: 4,011,586

Website: www.ntpc.gov.tw

Intelligent Community of the Year 2022

Top7 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2022

Smart21 2012 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2022

After absorbing its surrounding county in 2010, Kaohsiung became the largest municipality by area in Taiwan, with a population of 2.77 million. It is a major international port in the southwest of the country, serving the rich agricultural interior of southern Taiwan. Its waterfront industrial parks house steel mills, shipyards, petrochemical and refinery complexes, cement works, fertilizer factories and papermaking plants. The city is also home to eleven universities and colleges as well as eight military academies.

From Education to Employment

In the new century, Kaohsiung’s leaders have focused on increasing the city’s global competitiveness. One challenge is to ease the path for graduates into local employment to preserve Kaohsiung’s investment in its youth. In a Metropolitan Cultivation Project, the city has created incubation bases within schools, with the staff and equipment needed to give students marketable skills. It engages secondary schools, technical schools and universities in creating cooperative strategies and incentives for student advancement. The Economic Development Bureau trains teachers in the latest trends in local industries, while working with industry to develop internships focused on high-demand occupations. Today, twelve high schools and technical schools are working with 28 businesses, four universities and a hospital on classes, internship programs, and other projects.

Accelerating 4G Mobile Services

A different kind of infrastructure also has the city’s attention. Like most of Taiwan, Kaohsiung is well-wired, with 100% availability and 84% adoption of broadband. The missing link is high-speed mobile service. Until recently, Taiwan has lagged comparable nations in the rollout of 4G/LTE services. Kaohsiung worked with the two largest telcos in Taiwan to win national government subsidies for the development of 4G services, and offers the companies resources and administrative support to promote deployment. The city’s goal is to foster the development of 4G mobile technologies by local firms. Current projects include virtual tours of the Piers II Art Center, one of the city’s most popular recreation destinations, and an application that lets shoppers scan the barcodes on items with their mobile phones and find those items waiting for them at checkout.

Technology for the Neighborhood

The city is using digital technologies to improve life at the neighborhood level. Each of its 891 neighborhoods has a designated Head of Neighborhood. The city is training them in the use of social media to better communicate with their constituents. So far, 121 Heads of Neighborhood have participated in training, of whom 75% are 50 years old or older. A similar grassroots approach targets energy conservation. The city has organized media events promoting conservation technologies and techniques, as well as competitions among schools, businesses and government departments, and volunteer groups to provide energy use assessments.

Kaohsiung has major growth plans, from redevelopment of its port in a joint venture with Taiwan International Ports Corporation to reclamation of additional land from the sea. The city’s leaders will ensure that, as its physical footprint grows, the community’s digital footprint keeps pace.

Population: 2,778,729

Website: www.kcg.gov.tw

Smart21 2016

The first science park in Taiwan, Hsinchu Science Park, was established in 1980 in Hsinchu County by the National Science Council. Its purpose was to attract international technology talent, drive traditional industrial transformation, encourage industry update, enhance international competitiveness of products and stimulate economic growth. Today, its 520 companies employ over 150,000 people and generate US$30 billion in total revenue.  They specialize in fields ranging from IC design, LCDs and solar cells to the Internet of Things, Big Data, cloud and 4G wireless technologies. In addition to driving the overall economic development of Taiwan, Hsinchu Science Park has improved Taiwan’s education direction, attracted many international companies to invest in Taiwan and aided in the development of the Hsinchu County region. Other Science parks in the region include Tai Yuen High-Tech Industrial Park, Taiwan's first private industrial park, which is home to 250 companies with a combined annual output of US$15 billion. Zhudong Anime Park opened in 2015 to host exhibitions of art from Taiwanese comic artists as a tourist attraction and to help stimulate a cluster of artists and animators that were originally formed after the movie, Life of Pi was developed in Taiwan by Taiwanese born American director, Ang Lee.

Fighting Back from the Financial Crisis

The financial crisis that began in 2008 hit the Park hard as demand slackened for the semiconductors its companies produced. Leading companies like TSMC, UMS, Acer and Chimei Innolux shifted investment into higher-value products and services; the integrated circuit design business grew 9 percent from 2008 to 2009. These steps led to employment growth of 11% and production growth of 25% from 2006 to 2011.

Nor is Hsinchu Science Park the county's only such asset. Tai Yuen High-Tech Industrial Park, located in Zhubei, is Taiwan's first private industrial park. It is now home to 250 companies with a combined annual output of US$15 billion. Zhudong Anime Park opened in 2015 to host exhibitions of art from Taiwanese comic artists as a tourist attraction.

Today, the county’s challenge is to continue translating economic success into civic success: to make Hsinchu a sustainable Intelligent Community with a high quality of life, where innovation is a part of people’s daily lives. The challenge is increased by the broad geographic area the county covers: from the urban coast, home of Hsinchu County, to the sparsely populated mountainous region to the east. Government and business are pursuing the goal on multiple fronts.

Broadband and E-Learning

Hsinchu County has used grants from the national M-Taiwan Plan to develop a 433km broadband network connecting public offices and facilities across the county. A total of more than 230 iTaiwan free wireless hotspots provide service in public facilities to more than 24,000 registered users. Private-sector providers include Global Mobile and Chungwha Telecom, which provide 4G wireless and 100 Mbps fiber service in Hsinchu City and beyond. Digital education has gone mainstream. The county was the first in Taiwan to implement e-learning platforms – the e-Book Schoolbag and e-Book Reader – which now reach nearly 60 schools. A new cloud-based English teaching platform was launched in 2012 to help students learn the international language of business in school and at home. An online tutoring program engages undergraduate students in helping elementary and junior high school students in rural areas of the county.

The county actively leverages its higher education assets for economic growth. There are four universities, with a total of 27,000 students, in Hsinchu County offering work-study programs, and three additional universities are planning new R&D centers to link their researchers with the companies of the science and industrial parks. For the county's indigenous population, the Zhudong Community College specializes in Hakka culture and creativity, community services and life concerns.

In the News
Read the latest updates about Hsinchu County.

Population: 537,630

Website: www.hsinchu.gov.tw

Smart21 2016

Top7 2016

In 1980, Taiwan’s National Science Council set up the nation’s first science park in Hsinchu City, as a means to create a domestic high-tech industry. Today, the 500 companies in Hsinchu Science Park employ 150,000 people and generate US$16.6 billion in total revenue. More than 10 percent of those companies are spin-outs from one of Hsinchu’s many universities and research institutes. The 2008-09 financial crisis hit the Park hard as demand slackened for the semiconductors its companies produced. Leading companies like TSMC, UMS, Acer and Chimei Innolux shifted investment into higher-value products and services; the integrated circuit design business grew 9 percent from 2008 to 2009. These steps led to employment growth of 11% and production growth of 25% from 2006 to 2011, leaving Hsinchu with a 2012 unemployment rate of just 4.2 percent.

The Challenge of Sustainability

Today, under Mayor Hsu Ming-Tsai, the city’s challenge is to translate economic success into civic success: to make Hsinchu City a sustainable Intelligent Community with a high quality of life, where innovation is a part of people’s daily lives. Government and business are pursuing the goal on multiple fronts. Global Mobile Corp, the dominant wireless provider, has extended 4G wireless to 97% of the city, while Chungwha Telecom has made 100 Mbps fiber service available to 64% of residents as part of the national M-Taiwan program. Digital education has gone mainstream. The city was the first in Taiwan to implement e-learning platforms – the e-Book Schoolbag and e-Book Reader – which now reach nearly 60 schools. A new cloud-based English teaching platform was launched in 2012 to help students learn the international language of business in school and at home. Hsinchu City government has put a smart card into the hands of 120,000 residents that lets them take the bus, pay parking fees, borrow library books, shop and receive discounts from more than 30 participating vendors. Data collected from users is helping the city adjust bus schedules and measure how efficiently services are delivered across Hsinchu. City government has also launched an Intelligent City Project Office, which is promoting initiatives like the smart card to involve citizens closely in the city’s continued transformation. In December 2013, the city squeezed past the capital of Taipei to take the top rank in a “Better Life Index” published by Kainan University based on economic, social educational and citizen participation measures.

Population: 420,000

Website: en.hccg.gov.tw

Smart21 2013 | 2014

Top7 2014

Many countries have a north-south economic divide. Taiwan is no exception and Changhua County, for all of its natural beauty and abundance, is on the wrong side of it. The county is known as the “barn” of Taiwan, producing a wide range of agricultural products, and attracts tourists with hiking, biking, eco-touring and cultural and food festivals. But it is exposed to the same forces that affect other rural areas in industrialized nations: loss of population, particularly of the young, and a corresponding rise in the average age of its people. It has more small-to-midsize businesses than any other county in Taiwan but most are unregistered factories with limited capital and resulting low productivity.

Establishing Innovation Zones

The success of Central Taiwan Science Park, founded in Taiching (2013 Intelligent Community of the Year) has become an unexpected catalyst for change. The latest phase of the Science Park’s expansion has extended into the county and given new impetus to the county’s plans to develop its own innovation zones. It already possesses vital assets: multiple universities, colleges and technical schools and successful companies specializing in metals, glass art, aerospace, textiles and bicycles. Over the past decade, Changhua County has worked to create the ecosystem needed to realize the value of these assets. It has built an open access broadband network through which private-sector carriers can reach 99% of the population, and household penetration has risen from very low levels to more than 60%. To drive adoption, its offers free Internet instruction that has reached 30,000 residents to date. The county has also launched an online industrial development platform that showcases company products and guides users seeking development opportunities to available factories and sites. This integrated system empowers local business to market internationally and helps factories to upgrade their operations. It is just one of many e-government systems in planning or operation, ranging from tourism and urban planning apps to a social welfare and public safety platform that already process 90% of government documents online.

Investment Attraction

There is still far to go, but Changhua County is already seeing results. Better national and international marketing has boosted the export of agricultural products by 15 times in the past five years. University-business-government collaboration has established the Central Taiwan Textile R&D Project, the Metal Industries R&D Center and Bicycle Center, among others, to create new products and processes. Last year, the county attracted US$149 million in private investment, winning a national economic development award, and numbered Google among its new corporate citizens. The “barn” of Taiwan is finding ways to add new economic energy to its high quality of life.

Population: 1,291,474

Website: www.chcg.gov.tw

Smart21 2015

Singapore is a city-state of 685 sq km (264 sq miles) at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula with a population of 4 million. ICF named Singapore as its first Intelligent Community of the Year in 1999 for its ambitious plan for – and then to its 2002 Top seven list for its successful deployment of – the Singapore One project beginning in 1998. The aim was to provide every citizen and business with a high-speed Internet connection, and to foster the development of an online economy benefiting all of its citizens. In April 2002, the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore’s government announced that broadband was available via ADSL or cable modem to 98% of homes, and that one in three residents was a subscriber. An annual survey of Internet activities revealed that Singapore’s B2B e-commerce revenues grew from US$23 billion in 1998 to US$51 billion in 2000. Online procurement by business alone rose from US$3 billion in 1998 to US$10 billion in 2000. Not content with this level of growth, Singapore’s government began announcing a series of programs and incentives starting in January 2002 to promote applications development and greater usage, including a “Connected Homes” test bed for home networking and community services and a MySingapore Web site giving citizens access to a broad array of services.

Digital Age Trading Hub

Singapore rejoins the Top Seven in 2005 because of the outstanding progress it has continued to achieve and for its ambitious new vision for creating a Digital Age trading hub for the Asia-Pacific region. Progress has come in many areas, thanks to IDA’s unrelenting focus, strong funding and a emphasis on collaboration with private-sector partners. In 2003, PC ownership had risen to 74%, Internet connectivity to 65% and broadband subscribers to 40% of the total population. About 600 wireless hotspots have been deployed across the island (125 at McDonald’s restaurants), providing one wireless hub per square kilometer, and a standards-based integrated roaming and billing service gives users access to the entire wireless network. An alliance between IDA and Microsoft has made Singapore’s schools a test bed for digital textbooks, Tablet PCs and other innovative technology, as well as for in-depth technology training for both teachers and students. The World Economic Forum has ranked Singapore as one of the world’s most network-ready nations, and a 2004 report by Accenture ranked the country as second in the world for e-government leadership.

The Intelligent Island

Becoming an “Intelligent Island,” as Singapore calls itself, is only one step in a process. IDA’s latest vision, Connected Singapore, positions the nation as a Digital Age trading hub, echoing its leadership role as a trade port for physical goods. IDA’s plans call for Singapore to become a center for the secure creation, management and distribution of digital content, from TV programs to images, movies to online games. Piracy of intellectual property is a major problem in much of Asia. It stunts the market by reducing incentives for content owners to create or distribute content in the region. IDA will work with local and global companies to develop technological and other means to ensure security in all forms of digital commerce, with the potential of unlocking high growth. As one example, IDA recently facilitated a pilot project for the distribution of new Indian films via satellite to secure servers in Indian movie theaters. The theaters reported a sharp increase in attendance, because local pirates were prevented from stealing the 35mm film reels, digitizing them and selling DVDs on the street. If Singapore can fulfill this vision, it will indeed become one of the world’s great digital commerce centers.

Population: 4,425,000

Website: www.gov.sg

Intelligent Community of the Year 1999

Top7 2002 | 2005

Top photo, “Singapore, Marina Bay” is copyright (c) 2014 Leonid Yaitskiy and made available under an Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license. The image was cropped for use. The original image can be found here: https://flic.kr/p/oa6sWm

South Koreans expect government to have a strong hand. The nation is a world leader in broadband penetration and speed in part because of directives issued by the national government beginning in 1995 that drove massive investment and fierce competition among private-sector carriers. It wasn’t always pretty. Companies lost money, went bankrupt or merged with each other before finding profitability. But the end result for the nation was a broadband infrastructure the envy of much of the world.

In Suwon, which lies south of Seoul and is the capital of Gyeonggi Province, a strong governing hand goes back centuries. The city was founded 200 years ago as Korea’s first planned community by King Jungjo, the 22nd ruler of the Chosen Dynasty. Long a relatively small town, Suwon has seen a surge in its population in recent decades that now makes it the second largest municipality, after Seoul, in the nation.

Like satellite cities in other regions of the world, Suwon succeeded in part by serving the needs of its much larger neighbour. It became a transportation center for southern Seoul as well as a manufacturing hub specializing in both technology and heavy industry. Then came the Asian financial crisis of 1997. Suwon's largest employer, Samsung Electronics, moved outside the city limits in 2003 and another big employer, Samsung Corning, ceased operations in 2005. While the big chaebol like Samsung dominate much of South Korea’s economy, Suwon’s leadership realized that such domination comes with costs.

Investing in a New Economy

Led by Mayor Yong Seo Kim, Suwon set about creating an economy whose growth would be based on small-to-midsize enterprises (SMEs) specializing in IT, biotech and nanotechnology. City government was not shy about backing that goal with public investment. In 2003, the city began development of Suwon Industrial Complex I, which was completed in 2006 and now houses 156 metal fabrication companies. Complex II, completed in 2008, is home to 40 companies manufacturing electronic components, imaging, acoustic and telecom devices. Complex III is now under construction with a target completion date of 2012. Suwon provides the infrastructure and a range of incentives to encourage developers and factories to locate there.

For smaller firms, Suwon has put US$7 million into developing nine multi-tenant buildings, including Suwon Venture Plaza, Digital Empire and Innoplex, where 900 companies now employ over 11,000 people. A further three multi-tenant buildings are under construction to house 320 companies and over 4,000 employees. Attractive incentives for occupancy include exemption from or reduction of registration, acquisition, property and value-added taxes. The latest project is a Business Incubation Center that opened in 2008 and is now home to 25 companies.

Public-sector support extends beyond property investment and tax incentives. City government also allocates US$27m per year as investment capital to strengthen the competiveness of SMEs. The funding is designed to be matched by private investment or bank loans, but for companies too small to attract private financing, Suwon offers subsidies of up to $18,000 to support prototype development. Suwon also has an innovative Electronic Trade Office that connects to other Korean cities as well as partner cities in Asia, Europe and Latin America. The Office offers products online for sale by Suwon companies and provides a videoconferencing system to promote deal-making without the need to travel. To date, companies have sold $200,000 worth of products through the Office. A branch office of the Korean Trade Investment Promotion Agency extends this effort by providing overseas representation for Suwon companies. From 2003 to 2008, nearly 500 local businesses took part in expositions and market development projects.

Anyone with experience in municipal government knows that just throwing money at a problem is no guarantee of success. While betting taxpayers' money on buildings and companies, Suwon has also built a web of collaborative relationships among industry, universities and government. The tangible result is a large number of public-private research centers and institutes, including the Gyeonggi Regional Research Center, Content Convergence Software Research Center, Gyeonggi Bio Center, Korea Nano Fab Center, Next Generation Convergence Technology Institute and Green Energy, Auto Parts & Material Research Center. Some are located at local institutions including Sungkyunkwan University and Gyeonggi University. Others are based in yet another development, Kwangkyo Techno Valley, a $450m campus that is home to 145 R&D organizations.

Seven years of nurturing SMEs in specific industries have borne fruit. Two-third of Suwon companies specialize in one of its targeted industries: electronics, medical devices, chemicals and specialty metals. Companies with 50 or fewer employees make up 94% of all employers in the city.

Ubiquitous Suwon

Suwon's efforts to develop a 21st Century information infrastructure have been no less bold. In 2005, city government established the Ubiquitous Suwon Master Plan, branded as U-Happy. The goal was to make Suwon's government more transparent, more responsive to citizens and more cost-effective.

The city decided to develop its own governmental network despite South Korea's impressive broadband infrastructure. It was able to trim nearly a quarter-million US dollars from its operating costs by eliminating leased lines, and the use of conduit already installed for the transportation management system kept construction costs to a minimum. Control of its own network allowed Suwon to boost connection speeds from 32 Mbps to a blazing 1 Gbps.

What followed was a massive re-engineering project to consolidate and integrate multiple existing computer systems covering taxation, real estate, public health and safety, transportation management and city administration. Five city agencies collaborated on integration of GIS and aerial imaging data to simplify planning, eliminate hazards and increase efficiency. A unified Web gateway now provides citizens with access to online service requests, reports, payment, news and information. With 10 million unique visits per year, the site handled over 600,000 transactions in 2009 for 93,000 registered users, who can also elect to receive news and access their accounts by mobile phone. A Happy Suwon Broadcasting Station delivers local news over the Web on city government, cultural events, education and entertainment programs. And to ensure that services are available to the offline population, an Interactive Data Digital TV service offers government news, interactive services and information on traffic, health and culture through the familiar interface of the television set.

Suwon works to steadily reduce the size of that offline group. More than 35,000 people have received digital skills training from skilled volunteers in 20 education centers since 2002. As the city replaces computers in its offices, the old units are refurbished and distributed to children's centers, libraries and social welfare facility. Nearly 5,000 PCs have reached users since 2003, and the city also runs a PC clinic to provide ongoing maintenance for the systems. Suwon has also expanded the number of libraries, each with public access computers, from three in 2002 to eight today. Over five million visitors entered the libraries in 2009, up from 2.2 million in 2003. The Suwon Love Scholarship Foundation awarded $459m in scholarships to 800 students, as well as research grants to high-performing teachers, from 2006 to 2008. The scholarships go to low-income, high-potential and special education students to help pay the high costs of education.

Investing in the Mind

"Investment in education," wrote Suwon in its Top Seven nomination, "is one of the most sound and rational outlays of capital that a government can make." Between 2002 and 2009, the city backed up that proposition by investing more than US$360m in upgrading school facilities, opening new schools and expanding staff. A further $186m will fund the 2010 Suwon Education Development Support Plan, which includes 74 individual projects focusing on education for a global economy.

Globalization is much on the mind of Suwon's leadership. The Happy Suwon English Village opened in 2006 to provide an intensive learning environment in the global language of business to 7,300 elementary school students per year. A new Suwon Village of Foreign Languages, scheduled to open at the end of 2010, will provide the same environment for languages including Chinese and Japanese. In 2007, Suwon established the Gyeonggi Suwon Foreign School to make the city a premier destination for expatriates with families working for Korean multinationals. The school's targeted enrollment is 75% foreign nationals and 25% local students.

Suwon's educational programs also focus on technology innovation. The Scientific Education Institute of Gyeonggi Province offers specialized IT classes at a local secondary school. The city holds an annual Suwon Invention Competition for students and sends contestants to the World Innovation Olympiad every year. Since 2004, Suwon has organized an Information & Science Festival, which attracts 60,000 registrants to a National e-Sports Competition, National Intelligent Robot Competition, Students' Science Festival, Professional Gamers Exhibition and many more events.

The financial crisis of 1997 set Suwon on its present course and triggered investment in building an SME-driven economy, e-government and education. South Korea was not immune to the recession of 2008-2009; its economy shrank 5% in the last quarter of 2008. But it began to rebound in early 2009, thanks in part to strong government action. It was perhaps no coincidence that, in January 2010, the United Nations announced that Korea had topped its e-government rankings, the first such performance by an Asian nation. It was the same success story found, on a local scale, in Suwon.

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Suwon was featured in the Intelligent Community Forum book Seizing Our Destiny.

Population: 1,100,500

Labor Force: 551,500

Website: eng.suwon.ne.kr

Smart21 2010

Top7 2010