President Lai Ching-te spoke at the opening of a new national cloud computing center Dec. 12 in Tainan City, calling it a crucial step on Taiwan’s road to becoming a smart country.
Lai elaborated on the Executive Yuan’s Ten Major AI Infrastructure Projects initiative in his speech at the event, noting that the initiative entails establishing infrastructure such as the center and an artificial intelligence data hub. The president added that the government will invest over NT$100 billion (US$3.2 billion) by 2040 to enable the creation of 500,000 jobs and generation of NT$15 trillion in production value.
The launch of the center is of high importance to this endeavor, Lai said, noting that it is equipped with a supercomputer developed by the National Center for High-Performance Computing, in addition to advanced energy-saving technology and an earthquake-resistant design. He added that an AI data center will be established in Tainan to give southern Taiwan a combined computational power of 23 megawatts.
The president said that the center would facilitate public-private cooperation in enhancing enterprises’ global competitiveness and raising the country’s resilience. He added that the center also has a highly strategic value for Taiwan as it is connected to high-speed optical fiber links and undersea cable landing stations, which are intended to boost the country’s digital resilience, safeguard its online security and serve as a remote communications backup.
Lai additionally announced that the NCHC will work with Chunghwa Telecom Co. and Japan’s NTT Inc. to reduce energy consumption and enhance transmission speed through an optical wavelength network. He pledged to create more job opportunities for young people in such venues as the technology corridors in southern Taiwan. (YCH-E)
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