What you need to know
In face of the arrival of the IoT era, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and president-elect Tsai Ing-wen both brought up measures to encourage the development of relevant industries. While the former plans to bring together local startups and enterprises, the latter focuses on the development of five industries to establish a foothold in the IoT era.
Translated and compiled by Shin-wei Chang
In order to encourage companies to catch up with the trending Internet of Things (IoT) industrial chain, the Committee of Communication Industry Development under the Ministry of Economic Affairs decided to launch a program called “TiC100 A+ Plan for Startups”(TiC100創業A+計畫) on March 19.
The committee hopes to encourage startups to focus on IoT, smart retailing, smart healthcare and Industry 4.0, developing B2B service or products for enterprises, hoping to fight a way into the global market.
For example, startups would analyze big data and send the statistics to help retailers, hospitals and factories to improve the effectiveness of their operation. Additionally, they would also make the use of IoT to manage the streams of people in a space.
The committee selected 17 local startups via various channels, such as Mobile Heroes, a telecommunication creativity competition. Some of the startup teams are even recognized by renowned venture capital companies or enterprises.
For example, Loopd, a startup that manages exhibition venues with big data, has been funded by Box, a well-known content management company in the Silicon Valley.
The committee says that “TiC A+ Plan for Startups” is just an initial step of business networking, serving as the first meeting between local startup teams and enterprises. It hopes to invite international enterprises, telecommunication companies or venture capital companies to invest in local startups in the future.
President-elect focusing on the semiconductor industry
President-elect Tsai Ing-wen has also been targeting “five industries” for future development, including the renewable energy industry, national defense industry, smart machine industry, biotechnology industry and smart machinery industry.
On March 3, Tsai Ing-wen visited the Hsinchu Industrial park and said that all of the five industries mentioned above cannot develop without the semiconductor industry.
Tsai says, “Although Taiwan is not that big, we definitely have the ability to develop new products and innovative services ahead of the world.” Tsai emphasized that whether for healthcare, medical service, robots or cars, those industries all have to become “smart” to gain a firm foothold in the IoT era.
Edited by Yuan-ling Liang and Olivia Yang
Sources:
China Times
China Times