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After scoring impressive achievements at the end of its first implementation year in early September 2017, the Taiwan government’s Asia Silicon Valley Development Plan (ASVDP) is moving into a higher gear in the second year, focusing more on AI applications to transportation and air pollution control and on establishing a virtual national autonomous vehicle development team, according to Kung Ming-hsin, deputy economic minister and CEO of the Asia Silicon Valley Development Agency.
Kung made the statement when delivering a report on the achievements and outlook of the ASVDP at a weekly cabinet meeting on September 14. He said since the government announced the ASVDP one year ago, numerous international tech heavyweights, including Microsoft and Qualcomm, have come to Taiwan to set up innovation centers or tech labs. In March 2017, Facebook’s FbStart established a foothold in Taiwan, teaming up with Taiwan Startup Stadium and AppWorks Accelerator to render services and support to local tech startups.
AWS certification center planned in Taiwan
Kung stressed that multinational enterprises are expanding their business scales in Taiwan, and are sending their HQ research and development talent, instead of sales staff, to engage in tech innovations in the country. For instance, he continued, Cisco Systems is actively preparing to sign a memorandum of understanding for expanding its investment in Taiwan, and AMD is also planning to boost its investment, while ranking tech executives from Amazon Web Services are also engaged in negotiations over setting up a certification center here.
The government has appropriated a budget of NT$7.06 billion (US$234.89 million) in fiscal 2018 to support the ASVDP, and the government-funded Taiwania Investment and Management will also funnel NT$2-4 billion into the IoT (Internet of Things) applications, a key section of the ASVDP, according to Kung.
Besides IoT and innovation startups, the government has outlined major tasks concerning the development of AI and autonomous vehicles in 2018. In the AI development, the National Development Council (NDC) will utilize pilot fields and big data to promote AI micro-applications; the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) will focus on promoting the development of AI chips, establishment of AI platforms, cultivation of AI talent and construction of innovation bases. In this aspect, concrete schedules include: an online virtual AI academy will become operational in the third quarter of 2018, and achievements of AI applications to transportation and air pollution control will be released in the fourth quarter.
Virtual national self-driving car development team
As to the development of autonomous vehicles, the NDC will build a central management system platform; the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) will promote the development of sub-sensing systems for autonomous vehicles; and the MOST will host a Grand Challenge program with a simulated autonomous driving contest in the second quarter of 2018, hoping to source top autonomous vehicle design talent from Taiwan campuses and set up a virtual national team for developing autonomous vehicles in the fourth quarter, when a Lidar Map pilot field for autonomous vehicles is scheduled for completion by the science ministry.
Statistics compiled by the Department of Commerce under the MOEA showed that there were a total of 196,946 new companies registered July 2013-July 2017, including 25,003 engaged in the development of IoT hardware and software ,system integration and applications.
Taiwan is gearing up efforts to turn itself into Asia’s Silicon Valley.
Photo: Shihmin Fu, Digitimes, September 2017
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