The Cloud Valley Exhibition Center opened in downtown Taipei City March 14, buoying Taiwan’s hopes of becoming a world leader in the emerging cloud computing sector.
“This new center will help local companies create value-added cloud services for Taiwan’s high-tech industry,” Premier Sean C. Chen said at the opening ceremony.
He added that the center was an integral part of a five-year, NT$24 billion (US$813 million) cloud computing project being carried out by the government.
Now in its third year, the project “aims at elevating government efficiency and the standard of living of all our citizens,” Chen said.
According to event organizer the Cloud Computing Association, the center will allow local businesses to showcase their preliminary R&D results. Business investments and cooperation projects among academies and public-private partnerships are also expected to grow from the site.
“Our goal is to transform the center into an innovation and incubation platform for startups by 2013 and to establish more resource-integration bases throughout Taiwan by 2014,” said CCA President Lu Shyue-ching.
The center will also stimulate the growth of electronics suppliers and testing firms in the information technology industry, Lu added.
“We want to use the center to create a cluster comparable to Silicon Valley in the U.S.,” Lu added.
Several local and international companies are already showcasing their latest products at the exhibition facility. Taiwan Mobile Co. Ltd., one of Taiwan’s three big telecom operators, displayed an online writing and data storage service. Trend Micro Inc. showed an anti-virus software that can update virus codes in real time from a remote server.
U.S.-based Advanced Micro Devices Inc. also presented a virtualized desktop infrastructure that decouples data from the hardware and enables users to access applications from different devices.
(left to right) Minister without Portfolio Chang Shan-cheng, MOEA Minister Shih Yen-shiang, Premier Chen and CCA President Lu Shyue-ching give cloud computing the thumbs up during the ceremony.The CCA said these cloud computing services are tailored for individual users, enterprises or government agencies. Officials from the Ministry of Finance also demonstrated Formosa Technologies Corp.’s data-processing service that helps consumers read and sort out invoices using their smartphones.
Among those in attendance at the opening ceremony were Minister without Portfolio Chang Shan-cheng, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang, and Industrial Technology Research Institute President Shyu Jyuo-min.
In an interview with the media Chang said he will coordinate the government’s concerted efforts via the Cabinet-level Board of Science and Technology.
ITRI, one of Taiwan’s leading research institutes, will participate in the initiative by contributing its expertise in computer program engineering and systems management, Shyu added. (HZW)
Write to Aaron Hsu at pj1210meister@mail.gio.gov.tw