Economy

Executive Yuan set to promote e-book industry

• Publication Date：07/08/2009
• Source： Economic Daily News

The government is devising an action plan to promote the electronic book industry, which will begin with the digitalization of textbooks and library documents.

Reports said relevant businesses in Taiwan intend to jointly set up a large company like Amazon as a digital publishing platform, and to seek funding from the National Development Fund to help expand the market.

Under the government’s initiative, the Government Information Office will propose a subsidy plan to help develop the e-book publishing industry. The Industrial Development Bureau and Department of Industrial Technology under the Ministry of Economic Affairs will also offer grants for research and development of digital content. The Ministry of Education will endorse the plan to produce electronic textbooks for primary and secondary schools, hoping the use of e-books will help reduce the weight of students’ book bags.

The e-book business is included in the Executive Yuan’s plan for promoting the cultural and creative industry, one of the “six emerging industries” the government intends to foster for the good of Taiwan’s economic future. Major local businesses, including Yuan-Liou Publishing Co. Ltd., Cite Publishing Ltd., Locus Publishing Co. and Prime View International Co. Ltd., a leading investor in the production of e-readers, visited Premier Liu Chao-shiuan last week to discuss collaboration between the government and the private sector. Liu instructed Ministers without Portfolio Ovid Tseng and Chang Jin-fu to oversee progress as government agencies propose plans to press forward within two weeks.

According to reports, more and more domestic companies are investing in the development of e-readers. Taiwan’s renowned notebook computer producer, Asustek Computer Inc., and panel maker AU Optronics Corp. have both developed e-book readers. As to electronic paper, Prime View International has completed shipment of its products to Amazon, while an AUO-invested company signed an investment agreement with U.S. e-paper producer SiPix Imaging Inc. early this year.

Government officials pointed out that there are currently three companies involved in setting up trading platforms for e-books. Far Eastone Telecommunications Co. has made use of its telecommunications network in entering the trade; Yuan-Liou Publishing has completed a platform called “Koobe;” and the I-Mei Group of Companies, which owns the local English-language newspaper “Taiwan News,” is using the online paper as a trading platform.

Statistics show that e-book industry output stood at NT$12 billion (US$361 million) in 2008. The government expects the figure to rise to NT$100 billion by 2013. Officials believe that the more digital content that is developed, the more the market will expand. (PCT-THN)