On October 5, Taiwan launched an accelerator platform for the System Integration Promotion Alliance and announced the establishment of a dedicated project office at an opening ceremony held by the Ministry of Economic Affairs at Taipei's Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, in the hope of helping Taiwan's industry break free from the low profit margins of intermediate goods.
Under the instruction of the Executive Yuan and the leadership of Premier Mao Chi-kuo, representatives of related ministries, industry leaders across 10 selected sectors, the III (Institute for Information Industry), and the MIRDC (Metal Industries Research & Development Center) have all been invited to take part in this project.
The 10 selected sectors include electronic toll collection, green transportation, smart logistics, smart campuses, smart health, e-government, LED lighting, cloud systems, solar power and petrochemical plants. The project office will focus specifically on implementing all tasks related to system integration and promoting Taiwan's high-quality total solutions.
"Exports account for 70% of Taiwan's total GDP. But, as major developed and emerging countries have initiated import substitution strategies, Taiwan's export development has been constrained. Therefore, we should spare no effort to seek added-value products and services at this critical juncture to revamp industry value chains and expand overseas markets in a bid to offset the export squeeze," said Premier Mao.
Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Yang Wei-fu said that this platform, which connects 10 selected sectors and leverage resources from respective ministries, has been set up under the guidance of Taiwan's Executive Yuan to help Taiwan's industry transform from selling intermediate goods and components to having the ability to produce complete ICT application systems that promise higher added value.
"This platform is designed to identify software and hardware opportunities along with respective value chains through total solutions. In the short term, several companies with relatively high export earnings and potential will be selected; in the mid-to-long term, an incubation platform will be built to integrate advanced application solutions and undertake large-scale trial runs. Through total solutions, this platform will be able to produce complete ICT applications systems and increase synergies with service exports for worldwide markets," said Ming-ji Wu, Director General of the Industrial Development Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Over 200 distinguished guests attended the opening ceremony, and a forum on "Building a New Export Model and System Integration to Penetrate the Worldwide Market" was held later on, bringing together six SI industry leaders to share their success stories and domain knowledge with al l the attendees.