Small, Medium & Large Communities from Four Nations Show Transformative Change

(New York, USA and Quebec City, Canada – 11 February, 2019) –  In an announcement this evening at an event at Laval University in Quebec City, the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) named the Top7 Intelligent Communities of 2019. The 17th annual Top7 list includes cities and counties from the United States, Canada, Australia and Taiwan. One of these seven finalists in the think tank’s annual awards program will be named the Intelligent Community of the Year at the ICF Summit in June in New York City on June 13th. (www.icfsummit.com)

In alphabetical order, the Top7 Intelligent Communities of 2019 are:

• Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada
• Chicago, Illinois, USA
• Hudson, Ohio, USA
• Sarnia-Lambton County, Ontario, Canada
• Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia
• Taoyuan, Taiwan
• Westerville, Ohio, USA

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- As the trade war between the U.S. and China looks to continue to ramp up, Taiwanese tech companies are starting to pull out of China and shift production to the northern Taiwanese city of Taoyuan, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Though Taoyuan had suffered from a flight of industries to China over the decades, like the rest of Taiwan, the trend appears to be reversing as Taiwanese companies scramble to try to dodge current and potential future tariffs on tech gadgets made in China. Many Taiwanese companies are choosing Taoyuan because of the proximity of Taiwan's largest international airport, the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, and existing facilities at their disposal.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has partnered with Singapore-based gridComm in a first-of-its-kind deployment of a streetlight management solution in Taiwan.

The solution aims to provide real-time monitoring of streetlight infrastructure, improving energy efficiency and reducing energy consumption from streetlights across Taiwan’s Taoyuan City.

"Street lighting continues to be an increasing expense on any major city’s maintenance and electricity budgets,” said Cheng Wen-Tsan, mayor of Taoyuan City.

Taiwan’s outstanding research and development (R&D) achievements and excellent products such as automation in the country’s agricultural sector were featured at the 2018 Taoyuan Agriculture Expo from April 4 to May 13.

The event at Xinwu district in Taoyuan city — incorporating the idea of “Smart Technology, Green Life” — featured 23 pavilions with six main themes: “Smart Technology”, “Unique Industry”, “Cultural and Creative Arts”, “Local Life”, “Multiple Cultures” and “Sustainable Environment”.

The Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) has named the world’s Top7 Intelligent Communities of 2018. This is the think tank’s 16th annual Top7 list of regions, cities or towns that have gone, in ICF’s words, “from smart city to intelligent community.”

This year’s list includes communities from four nations, with Taiwan contributing three, Canada two communities and Australia and Finland one each. The seven will travel to London in June where one will go on to be named the Intelligent Community of the Year, succeeding Melbourne, Australia, the reigning community.

Chiayi, Tainan and Taoyuan have been named among the top seven Intelligent Communities for 2018, the New York-based think tank Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) said on Thursday.

The other four nominees in the list are Ipswich, Australia, Hamilton and Winnipeg, Canada, and Espoo, Finland, the forum said.

The Taoyuan government has signed an MoU with Microsoft Taiwan to recruit the latter's technological assistance to help the northern Taiwan city turn into a smart city.

Microsoft Taiwan will provide cloud computing platforms, big data analytics, AI (artificial intelligence) and MR (mixed reality) technologies. Microsoft Taiwan will offer BizSpark, a Microsoft program to help the city government operate startup business parks.

Taiwan’s major urban areas are best suited for advancement as smart cities, Virginia-based public-private partnership MeriTalk reported.

World-famous for its PC and motherboard manufacturing industry, Taiwan is primed for piloting smart city programmes, according to Taiwanese officials who attended MeriTalk’s Global City Teams Challenge (GCTC) expo in Washington DC.

A delegation comprised of Taoyuan City Government officials, China Airlines Chairman Ho Nuan-hsuan, and Taoyuan International Airport Corporation President and CEO Shiau Deng-ke, led by Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan, visited the United States from July 4 to July 15 on the “2017 Taoyuan City Trade Delegation to the West Coast USA.”

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—Taiwan's Asian Silicon Valley project aims to foster the nation's domestic startups by offering more resources to entrepreneurs, said Minister of Economic Affairs Chih-Kung Lee (李世光) during the opening of 2017 Asia Silicon Valley International Summit Forum at Taoyuan City on Tuesday.

In addition, to seeking aid from foreign investments and companies, MOEA plans to form three large domestic enterprises, by merging small semiconductor, IoT, and self-driving car companies to compete with global players, said Lee.