4. Taiwan Case
4.4 ICT Policy
4.4.1 Organizational and legal arrangement for an information society
The Taiwanese government integrates itself and the private sector to boost ICT development.
Several organizations are commissioned by the government to promote ICTs. The two most important government planning and coordination bodies are the leading ministry in charge of economic development and industrial policy, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) and the National Science Council (NSC). The Ministry of Economic Affairs has a major role in technology policy, providing incentives for private sector R&D, promoting technology imports, and supporting a number of research organizations. Actual implementation of industrial development and technology policy is centralized within the MOEA and its affiliates.
The National Science Council (NSC) is the highest government agency responsible for promoting the development of science and technology (S&T). The NSC draws up development policies and programmes, plans and implements basic and applied research, improves the research environment, and trains and recruits related manpower. Following the enactment of the Fundamental Science and
Technology Act in 1999 and the Seventh National Science and Technology Conference in 2005, the
NSC drew up the National Science and Technology Development Plan (2005-2008) and issued theWhite Paper on Science and Technology (2003-2006). The National Information Infrastructure
Enterprise Promotion Associate is the first non-profit organization in Taiwan to improve its national
information infrastructure and promote advanced applications. In addition, one of its objectives is toconnect government's policies and private sector technology to promote ICTs and national information infrastructure. The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), and the Institute of Information Industry (III) will be described more precisely in the following:
4.4.2 The Industry Technology Research Institute (ITRI)
At its establishment in 1973, ITRI was only an electronics research and development centre;
however it became a ‘quasi-government corporation’ as a result of the accelerated upgrading of industrial technology and the promotion of industrial performance. Now, after 28 years, ITRI is composed of seven laboratories and nine research centres handling research in electronics, computers & telecommunications, energy & resources, mechanics, chemistry, optoelectronics, industrial safety and health, measurement standards, aviation and space, biomedical engineering, and materials science. In regard to ITRI’s budget, about a third of this comes from the private sector for contract research and various joint development projects, while two thirds come from various government sources (Mathews, 1997: 31). For years, ITRI served as a bridge between academic studies and industrial applications and provided strong backing to develop industries.
Since its inception in 1973, ITRI has played a major role in upgrading Taiwan’s industrial technology. ITRI created Taiwan’s semiconductor industry from scratch, led the development of its other high-tech industries, and helped traditional industries raise productivity, to catch up with advanced economies. ITRI participates in this role, fostering young companies and new technologies until they are able to survive on their own.
4.4.3 The Institute for Information Industry (III)
Since its inception in 1979, the Institute for Information Industry (III) has been a key technology contributor to Taiwan’s ICT industry, while also playing a vital role in promoting the adoption of ICT in both public and private sectors. Its founding mission, which continues today, was to increase Taiwan’s global competitiveness through the development of its information technology infrastructure and industry.
III’s current work can be summarized as aiding Taiwan in becoming a world-class ICT leader. This leadership involves not only having a vibrant ICT industry, but also ensuring that public and private institutions in Taiwan can take full advantage of the benefits of ICT, such as increasing productivity, raising efficiency, and improving quality of life.
Kraemer et al. (1996: 228) point out, that Taiwan has had a well-defined structure for policy formulation, coordination, and implementation. The actual implementation of industry and technology policy is centralized within the MOEA and its affiliates. Frequent consultation occurs at various levels with international experts, industry associations, and industry leaders in this institutional structure. This chain of command has been empowered by the political leadership to design and implement a coordinated policy approach and has enabled Taiwan to develop a coherent strategy for its computer industry.
4.4.4 The role of universities
The Taiwanese government has always promoted cooperation between industries and universities in recent years; for example, the “TDP for Academia” which the Industrial Development Bureau in MOEA brought out is a best policy action scheme. The interaction between industries and universities is largely confined to the supply of talent, the reasons being as follows:
• Taiwan has established an intact research system: The government has set up industrial science and technology research institutes such as ITRI and III to develop industrial technology, and transfers the technology to domestic proprietors, which serves as the backing for industrial R&D (especially for SMEs).
• For a long time, the major tasks government has given universities are teaching and research, not promoting the development of industries; that is to say, the incentive mechanism which the government offers leads the energy of universities to academic research, lacking contact with the foresight research required by industry. Accordingly, the industrial circles are short of inducements and opportunities to seek support from academic circles.
• Taiwanese universities and colleges have quite high proportions of high-level research manpower.
• In terms of “innovation”, the interaction between industries and universities and the degree of reciprocal support still have space to improve and be promoted.
4.4.5 Patents and related acts
In 1950, the National Bureau of Standard (NBS) was put in charge of patent and related affairs.
Four years later, the NBS was also given the authority for trademark and related issues. Based on the 1993 "Guideline on Comprehensive IPR Protection Program", an agency responsible for IPR protection was established under the Ministry of Economic Affairs. In 1998, the Organisational Statute of the Intellectual Property Office was ratified and promulgated. In 1999, a reorganisation of the NBS into the Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) of the Ministry of Economic Affairs took place.
The Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) is in charge of patent, trademark, copyright, integrated circuit layout, trade secret and other IP related affairs. Taiwan distinguishes three patent types:
invention, utility model and design, with different patent terms for invention: 20 years for invention, 12 years for design and 10 years for utility model according to the Patent Law from 2003.
Trademarks are valid for 10 years after registration whereas copyright protection is the author's life plus 50 years. Integrated Circuit Layouts are protected for 10 years. The protection of intellectual property rights in order to support Taiwan's attractiveness, to upgrade industrial capacity and to remain globally competitive is a core element of Taiwan's national policy. The role of IP protection is supposed to be increasing in the context of a shift of the economic structure from a skill-intensive to knowledge-based. The general IP development is presented in action plans. The IPR Action Plan 2006-2008 focuses on the fulfilment of international responsibilities and improvement of legislation quality by comprehensive IPR legislation and policies, the support of IPR.-specific policy forces and facilities, on enhanced border controls and decreasing counterfeit and piracy product trade as well as on providing trainings, and promoting the use of licensed goods. Innovation and patenting are rewarded and education promotion programmes are strengthened. (TIPO website)
4.4.6 IC Policy
Regarding Taiwan’s ICT development also have fruitful outcomes. In June 2002, Taiwan government proposed the "Two-Trillion and Twin-Star" program to create the digital content one of the industries with annual production value of over NT$1 trillion. Facing the changes of the digital world, the Taiwan government has actively worked to promote digitization through a number of initiatives in recent years to improve the nation's IT proficiency and the competitiveness of domestic IT industries. In May 2002, the NICI and other government agencies worked together to launch the “E-Taiwan Program” as a part of the Challenge 2008 Program. There are five integral parts in this plan, i.e. “6 million broadband users”, “e-Society”, “e-Industry”, “e-Government” and
“e-Opportunity”. “6 million broadband users” is expected to deliver the following results by 2007:
(1) broadband network is fully installed with implementation of IPv6 and wireless LAN environment, (2) small & medium enterprises are mostly brought online, (3) safety standards, regulation, strategy and legislation are properly installed and in full operation, (4) IC security enforcement is strictly observed and capable of fostering the related industries, (5) CA cards have been successfully issued and commonly accepted as a primary means of identification.
With the need of a sound e-business framework and application standards, DOIT of MOEA commissioned ACI of III to undertake long-term research and promotion work with regard to the
“E-Business Standard Research Plan”. Besides, in order to continually strengthen the enterprises’
digital capacities, “ABCDE Projects” aim to create an e-business supply chain system, lay the foundations for a new business model where "orders are received in Taiwan, production can take place anywhere in the world".
Figure 3 : The vision of e-Taiwan
Source: NICI (2005). The vision of e-Taiwan.
The third IT revolution aims to forge the personal computers, internet and mobile communications into a "Ubiquitous Network". By utilizing this network, the government, entrepreneurs and end-users are able to get the information they need by any device, at any time and anywhere – more efficiently, more conveniently, and giving better quality of life. With the advantages of the world’s No.1 production value of WLAN products and mobile phone penetration rates, the Taiwan government has actively promoted Mobile-competitiveness. The National Information and Communication Initiative (NICI) committee of Executive Yuan (Cabinet), Ministry of the Interior (MOI) and Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) coordinated to propose the “M-Taiwan
Program” with a budget of NT$37 billion in five years. The M-Taiwan Program is expected to
build up the wireless networks, integrate mobile phone networks, set up optical-fibre backbones, and execute the Integrated Beyond 3rd Generation (iB3G) Double Network Integration Plan. It is also expected to shift Taiwan from an ‘e-nation’ to an ‘m-nation’, and to reach the vision of “Mobile Taiwan, infinite application, and a brave new mobile world”. This project has three core aspects:m-Life, m-Service and m-Learning.
The industry value of ICT hardware sector and IT software sector respectively is 684.1 and 49.4 hundred million US$ in 2004. And the proportion of ICT expenditure to GDP is 1.7% in 2004. And the According to the survey conducted by FIND of III, the Internet subscribers (Internet access accounts) in Taiwan reached 9.98 million as of December 2004. In 2004, 61% of households in Taiwan have connected to the Internet, and 81% of Taiwan enterprises have Internet accesses. In 2004, the bandwidth used for international Internet connection in Taiwan exceeded 70 Gbps; there were over 5 million Mobile Internet subscribers in Taiwan; Taiwan government has offered 847 government services online as of the end of 2004 (FIND website, Taiwan).