Guiding Policy in Hsinchu County

Taiwan’s Hsinchu County, located in northern Taiwan, invited the ICF Institute’s Smart City Project Team to take a leading role in the county’s smart city or Intelligent Community initiatives beginning in February 2023. After a careful review of policies and comparison with those of other cities and counties, the Team offered recommendations designed to better coordinate policies to achieve a common set of goals. The Team then provided training to departments within the county government and facilitated public workshops. The workshops provided a chance to communicate the county’s vision to citizens and gain valuable feedback from them.

Taoyuan has kicked off an exciting initiative “She smart Taoyuan”, further in collaborating with gender perspective into city and policy design and celebrating what women have accomplished in this field.

(Taoyuan, Taiwan & New York, USA – March 9, 2022) – Undeterred by the global pandemic, Taoyuan City continued its City Leaders Conversations Series, co-hosted by the Intelligent Community Forum. The Series engages Taoyuan’s fellow cities in conversations intended to share best practices among those that are leading the “smart city” or Intelligent Community movements. After conversations with Binh Duong (Vietnam), Eindhoven (Netherlands), and Edmonton (Canada), Taoyuan engaged with Vienna (Austria) in February for an excellent discussion with a famous city that is pushing forward with a net-zero emissions policy and programs in the areas of industry and water management that are forward-looking.

The Vienna session included Wolfgang Hassler, Deputy Head of Department for Economic Affairs, Labour and Statistics of Vienna; Sabine Ohler, Director of International Business, Vienna Business Agency; Christian Tino Terraneo, CEO of Austrian Technology Corporation (ATC); Christian Weinguny, CEO of Maschinen - Umwelttechnik - Transportanlagen (M-U-T). Louis Zacharilla, Co-Founder of the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) moderated the conversation, which was hosted by Yu Wan-Ju (Karen), General Director, Department of Information Technology of Taoyuan City. The group discussed economic sustainability with a particular emphasis on digital transformation and its role in water management strategies.

Taoyuan, Taiwan/New York, USA – February 7 2022 - With adversities like the global pandemic and climate change constantly threatening our livelihood, sustainable development presents itself as a strategy to cope with such issues. To find solutions, Department of Information Technology of Taoyuan City Government thus became the first to partner with the internationally acclaimed Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) www.intelligentcommunity.org to host a series of “Taoyuan x ICF: City-Leaders Conversation.”

Taoyuan has kicked off an exciting initiative “She smart Taoyuan”, further in collaborating with gender perspective into city and policy design and celebrating what women have accomplished in this field.

Taoyuan, Taiwan & New York, USA – 10 January 2022 - Topics such as net-zero carbon emission and sustainability have become key issues to the global community. Undeterred by the coronavirus pandemic, Department of Information Technology of Taoyuan City Government partnered with the internationally acclaimed ICF as a front runner in 2022. As a prelude to the Smart City Summit & Expo 2022 held in Taiwan, Taoyuan City will co-host with ICF the series of “Taoyuan x ICF: City-Leaders Conversation” with fellow intelligent communities on how to best respond to the challenges at hand.

With the goal of leading the upgrading and transformation of industries and the development of digital technology, the Taiwan government is implementing the "Smart City Taiwan Project" through the Industrial Development Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The central government, local governments and industries are working together to develop innovative applications in 22 counties and cities across Taiwan in six major areas, including "health," "governance/security," "transportation," "agriculture," "education" and "tourism/retail," through the Public-Private-People Partnership mechanism. Since its inception, the project has yielded fruitful results, with about 300 enterprises participating and developing 223 smart services that benefit 8.54 million people. In addition to solving local problems, the project has also opened up international development opportunities for industry players.

The Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs directs the project, “Smart City Taiwan,” as part of Taiwanese government’s goal to promote industrial upgrading and transformation and digital technologies. The central and local governments and industries work together to introduce smart, innovative applications covering “health,” “governance/safety,” “traffic,” “agriculture,” “education,” and “tourism/retail” to 22 cities and counties across Taiwan. So far, the project has yield remarkable results. About 300 companies have released more than 220 smart services accessible to 8.54 million people. These smart services are designed to address local issues and are also being exported to foreign countries. 

Environmental sustainability and energy transition: Taiwan steps up battle to cut carbon emissions and achieve Net-Zero by 2050

While the world is experiencing the Covid-19 outbreak since 2020, the most searched keyword in 2021 is net zero emissions. This implies that climate change is going to be another battlefield, because no one is immune to its effects. For this reason, U.S. President Joe Biden has promised to invest US$2 trillion in the next four years to build a green energy economy and promote the development of clean energy in the United States. Governments around the world have also actively promoted net-zero emissions to stop climate change from getting worse.

In April 2021, 131 countries including the European Union, the United States, South Korea, and Japan made more active emission reduction commitments at the Leaders Summit on Climate. The United Kingdom and the European Union both updated their mid-term (2035) carbon reduction targets to reduce carbon emissions by 78% and 55%, respectively, and reach a net-zero carbon emission target by 2050. As a member of the global village, Taiwan jumps on the bandwagon to get to zero carbon by 2050.