Communities from Brazil, Canada, Taiwan and the United States become finalists for Intelligent Community of the Year to be named at the ICF Global Summit in November in Barcelona

(New York, NY, USA & New Taipei City, Taiwan – June 19, 2024) – In an announcement today at the end of a live conference in New Taipei City, the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) named the Top7 Intelligent Communities of 2024. The 22nd annual Top7 list includes cities and counties from Brazil, Canada, Taiwan and the United States. 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 November. (www.icfsummit.com)

In alphabetical order, the Top7 Intelligent Communities of 2024 are:

• Assaí, Paraná, Brazil
• Coral Gables, Florida, USA
• Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil
• Durham Region, Ontario, Canada
• Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
• Hilliard, Ohio, USA
• Yunlin County, Taiwan

Yunlin County, comprised of 19 townships and the county seat of Douliu, is found on the fertile Chianan Plain on the western coast of Taiwan. Its rich farmland and many rivers have made the county an agrarian center, producing crops such as pomelo, tea leaves, suan cai, papaya and melon and also housing a large number of fisheries and fishing ports along the coastline. Yunlin County’s land is prized for its beauty in addition to its bounty, and the county is home to the first temple theme park of Taiwan, as well as some of the most prominent Mazu temples in the country. Yunlin also houses the nation’s largest agarwood forest park and the magnificent Penglai Waterfall in Penny’s Water Creek Valley.

Outside of agriculture, Yunlin County has long placed emphasis on its education system, and the county is home to 4 universities, dozens of secondary and hundreds of primary schools and the National Yunlin Special Education School. In the 21st century, the county has focused ever harder on education and connectivity to become a place where innovation thrives.

Smart Campuses Prepare Students for High-Tech Work

In recent years, Yunlin County has made significant strides in ensuring robust broadband access across its educational institutions. The county has transformed all of its elementary and middle schools into smart campuses, providing 100% wireless network coverage in those schools and over 30,000 tablets for students under a Learning Device Management System. All 187 elementary and middle schools have also introduced smart student ID cards, which allow parents to access the Smart Campus App to stay informed and involved with their children’s education.

Yunlin County’s Smart Education Center, branded as the Starbase of Crescent Harbor, is a pioneering facility that immerses students in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) emerging technologies. Its specialized facilities cover Artificial Intelligence, the Metaverse, 3D Making, Smart Agriculture, Future Life and STEAM Handicrafts. The integration of these resources aims to furnish every student with a sound technological foundation before graduation. Further reinforcing these efforts, Yunlin has instituted a unique Information and Life Technology curriculum for 3rd to 6th graders, standardizing it across all schools beginning in the 2022 academic year. The county has simultaneously focused on more advanced digital training for teachers with a series of workshops, supported by the Office for Digital Learning Promotion, that teach digital learning methodologies. As of 2024, nearly 5,000 teachers across the county have completed one or more of these workshops. These initiatives have culminated in notable recognition at the "Autonomous Learning Festival," underlining Yunlin's success in digitally empowering both teachers and students.

The county government is also developing its higher education resources by collaborating with the National Yunlin University of Science and Technology and National Formosa University to develop better courses for technical professionals and create more industrial-academic internships for students. The universities are also actively working with local industries to create special classes based on the manpower needs of those industries. From 2019 to 2022, local universities hosted corporate training courses for 22 companies with 1,757 attendees. University students also have the opportunity to work with local industries on key technology remodeling activities to improve both the students’ grasp of such technologies and the companies’ efficiency.

Agricultural Innovation for a Sustainable Future

Yunlin County is a leader in agricultural productivity and innovation, with 2022 seeing an agricultural output of approximately NT$89 billion. Despite challenges posed by an aging agricultural workforce and climate change, the county is proactively pursuing "low-carbon, carbon-negative agriculture" and "smart agriculture." Yunlin County established the Climate Change Response Office in 2021 to spearhead these initiatives, promoting regional collaboration and smart governance measures to align with Taiwan's net zero emissions by 2050 ambitions. At the same time, the government held seminars with local industry leaders, farmer groups and community representatives to create an agricultural vision for the future that included input from all parties.

In 2022, the county signed an MOU with Nahua University to provide carbon footprinting devices, third-party verification and suggestions based on the results for local agricultural businesses. Then in 2023, they partnered with YunTech to establish the Yunlin Zero Waste Transformation Integrated Services Hub, which provides a one-stop platform for businesses to access sustainability assistance and guidance. The platform allows businesses to apply for government subsides, including those available through the MOEA Industrial Development Bureau’s Manufacturing Sector Promotion Plan for Net Zero Transformation and the 1+N Carbon Management Project. In 2023 alone, Yunlin County held training sessions for 33 local businesses and helped secure approximately NT$47 million in government subsidies to help them establish greener practices.

On the innovation side, Yunlin County is developing climate-smart agriculture (CSA), intelligent agricultural management technologies and integrating information and communication technologies (ICT) to digitize some agricultural production elements and implement smart controls to improve operations. As of 2024, the county has completed eight smart automation agricultural projects, including developing Smart Greenhouses outfitted with IoT technologies and environmental sensors to monitor control systems as well as temperature, humidity and soil conductivity. Another project established Smart Poultry Houses with two local companies. These locations use IoT to monitor conditions for the animals and also provide cleaning services, allowing four people to manage up to 50,000 livestock and protecting against labor shortages.

Engaging Youth in the Future of Yunlin

Community participation is at the heart of Yunlin County's development philosophy. The Local Revitalization Office, established in 2019, has been instrumental in organizing over 400 consensus meetings with civil society, fostering a collaborative approach to shaping Yunlin's future. The county has focused particularly on increasing youth participation in the community. Yunlin County established the Central Youth Hub in April 2023, which serves as an event venue with public facilities and classrooms for rent. Public- and private-sector partnerships have also funded co-working spaces in the Hub to give young entrepreneurs a place to gather and work on their ideas. To further facilitate entrepreneurial development and interest in starting businesses locally in Yunlin County, the government commissioned YunTech to create a Yunlin Youth Entrepreneurship Subsidy and Cultivation project, which provides funding to residents age 20-40 who are starting businesses in the county. This initiative has empowered 22 young individuals to realize their entrepreneurial aspirations across diverse fields, instilling both determination and confidence in the county's youth to remain and thrive within their hometowns.

The Central Youth Hub hosts many local talent development activities, including Master Trend Lectures, 14 Lessons for Young People, Local Culture Exploration and Investigation and Exchange Life Experience, all of which are aimed at promoting awareness of local issues and taking initiative in the younger generations. The Hub also collaborates with experts from various fields to provide vocational counseling services via phone or in person.

Yunlin County provides a prime example of how rural regions can leverage technology, education, community engagement and innovative practices to foster comprehensive growth and development while maintaining the strength of their cultural heritage and traditional industries.

Population: 664,963

Website: www.yunlin.gov.tw

Smart21 2024

Top7 2024