This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on October 2, 2017
KUALA LUMPUR: Taiwan, home to some of the world’s largest electronic manufacturing services companies like Foxconn Technology Group, Pegatron Corp and Wistron Corp, is pivoting from contract hardware manufacturing to the creation of innovative, smart applications.
The island nation’s president Tsai Ing-wen said in her keynote speech at the recently concluded 2017 World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT 2017), themed “Living the Digital Dream”, that Taiwan is determined to embrace the digital age.
“Taiwan welcomes outstanding personnel and enterprises involved in the Internet of things (IoT), Industry 4.0, and artificial intelligence (AI) to connect with our domestic supply chains, and develop innovative digital products and application services,” she said.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Health and Welfare Deputy Minister Dr Ho Chi-kung shared during a session at WCIT 2017 that information and communications technology (ICT) plays an important role in Taiwan’s health infrastructure.
“Telecommunication technologies are also useful in health services, such as IoT devices measuring physiological data like blood pressure and glucose level. In ageing societies, in particular, ICT can support seniors’ health, safety, communication, social and entertainment needs to improve their quality of life,” he said.
“Our National Health Insurance (NHI) was established more than two decades ago, and has delivered universal coverage that has extended life expectancy from 74.5 years in 1995 to over 80 years in 2016,” said Ho.
He added that since its establishment, NHI data has significantly contributed to advances in health technology.
“Many medical treatments were developed from analytical models based on NHI data. Our long-term goal is to combine artificial intelligence and telemedicine with personalised medicine.
“Smart health development works because big data and smart healthcare implementation improve the efficiency and accuracy of medical services,” said Ho.
Steering Taiwan’s transformation from hardware to software is Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s first digital minister. At age 36, Tang is the youngest minister without a portfolio in Taiwan’s history, and is a tech genius who has worked with Apple Inc for six years before joining the government.
In her role, Tang also speaks to Taiwan’s manufacturers on their readiness to transcend from hardware to software.
“The semiconductor people that I’ve listened to during the Strategic Review Board meeting said they’re very willing to make edge devices and AI ... that for them means more product lines, more specialised [and] sensor specific development of chipsets, a lot more utilisation of 5G spectra and so on,” she said.
Edge devices are network devices that have immediate or direct connection to the Internet or an external non-proprietary network.
On how Taiwan would compete on the digital space with countries like South Korea, Japan or China, Tang, who is a self-proclaimed anarchist, said Taiwan’s diverse and sustainable ecosystem is what makes the island nation stand out from the rest.
“I think what Taiwan offers is a tolerance, and I would even say an embrace, of failure. It’s not quite Silicon Valley level, but it’s pretty good in Asia in the sense that if a young person tries something and fails in Taiwan, the response would be, ‘OK, that’s great we have all learnt something from it’. Whereas in most other places in Asia, [there are] parental expectations [to be met].
“Freedom of expression [here] has taken on an almost unchallengable position, and when we work with social media we always work with the premise that there must be no censorship, no limitation on how people express themselves. That makes for a diverse and sustainable ecosystem that can make innovations happen,” she said.