Taiwan ramps up smart technology initiatives

  • Taiwan’s innovative industries plan continues with opening the Cyber Security and Smart Technology Research and Development Building.
  • The 5+2 innovative industries plan has seven areas of focus
  • Tainan’s Shalun area will be developed as green energy technology and innovation ecosystem.

The realization of Taiwan’s 5+2 innovative industries plan will soon materialize as the Cyber Security and Smart Technology Research and Development Building in Shalun, Tainan.

Under the island’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), the building is poised to be the hub for startups and high-tech companies and the south Taiwan headquarters for Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA), a deep tech startup ecosystem building program.

The 5+2 innovative industries plan was initiated in July 2016 with seven areas of focus: intelligent machinery, green energy, biomedicine, new agriculture, circular economy, national defense, and aerospace, and transforming Taiwan into Asia’s Silicon Valley. 

With cybersecurity designated as part of the island’s national defense, an action plan was unveiled in 2018, including building a cybersecurity education and training system guided by industry needs. 

Increasing the number of people working in the cybersecurity field to 10,000 and providing assistance and support for establishing 40 cybersecurity startups are a couple of the action plan’s objectives for 2025.

A leading center for smart technology and green living

Tainan is set to be the leading center for smart green city living, with its Shalun area being developed as green energy technology and innovation ecosystem.

The new Cyber Security and Smart Technology R&D building is part of Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City, an industrial park in Gueiren District, Tainan. 

“Few people wanted to move for work to Gueiren five years ago, but the hub in the district is expected to become the cradle of Asia’s most advanced cybersecurity technology, featuring innovative startups,” quipped Minister of Science and Technology Wu Tsung-tsong during the new building’s opening ceremony.

Taiwan mapped out its National Science and Technology Development Plan 2021-2024 to strengthen balanced regional development by spreading characteristic industry clusters throughout its northern, central, and southern regions. 

Taiwan’s 2030 vision 

The plan listed four goals towards realizing the country’s 2030 vision for innovation, inclusion, and sustainability:

  1. Refine the talent cultivation environment and create competitive advantages for talent recruitment 
  2. Improve the research and development ecosystem and allocate resources for the development of pioneering technology
  3. Co-create economic momentum and build a solid ground for innovation
  4. Enhance smart living capacity and realize a secure society

The most recent development initiatives expand on the 5+2 industrial innovation plan by focusing on six core strategic industries: digital and information industry, national defense and strategic industry, cybersecurity industry, green and renewable energy industry, medical technology, and precision health industry, and strategic stockpile industry.

A few days after the building’s opening, where President Tsai Ing-wen reiterated Taiwan’s commitment to fostering technological advancement with a humanistic approach, MOST announced that it would be transformed into a new science and technology council as early as March 2022. 

The new council will oversee the country’s overall technology development, which includes helping the cabinet and other government agencies to strengthen their technology development and decision-making in their operations and policies, as tech has become an index of its national competitiveness.  





Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *