Every year around the beginning of June, the world’s tech industry
converges on Computex, a Taipei trade show that features huge
PC brands like Acer, Asus and MSI along with hundreds of the small
and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are a feature of Taiwan’s
high-tech economy. But beyond these household names, Taiwan is
fostering an even bigger tech revolution, where connected devices in
industry, the built environment and medicine further reshape lifestyles
and economies.
“Taiwan has transformed from manufacturing to solutions
and applications,” says Walter Yeh, president and chief executive
of TAITRA, a government-sponsored foundation that builds
connections between Taiwanese industry and the world. TAITRA
administers the Taiwan Excellence Awards, which recognise quality
and innovation in Taiwanese products, and following the country’s
move beyond manufacturing, in 2019 the awards will for the first
time be given to services as well.
Leaders in Taiwanese tech share Mr Yeh’s view that growth in
solutions is a powerful trend. Among them is K.C. Liu, the chairman
and chief executive of Advantech, the world’s largest maker of
industrial computers by market share. “Taiwan can be a champion of
IoT [internet of things] platforms,” because the “foundation is already
there” due to Taiwan’s pivotal position in global supply chains, he says.
Advantech and other Taiwanese firms such as Wistron, Acer,
Asus and Hon Hai (aka Foxconn) already make a huge array of
equipment that enables monitoring, visualisation and automation.
Meanwhile, local chipmakers like TSMC, which currently leads the
world in processes at 7nm and below, provide the raw power inside
many computing devices. All this is particularly useful in settings
like smart factories, smart cities and smart health care, which
McKinsey has identified as key venues for IoT applications.
Over the next 50 years, efforts in these areas should see all
existing industries thoroughly transformed by digital technology.
Qisda, formerly known as BenQ, offers one example. Having
entered the medical-care industry in 2005, its OEM relationships
with the likes of GE, Philips and Siemens have enabled it to develop
advanced diagnostic ultrasound systems, and the company is now
combining medical resources with IoT technology to create smart
operating rooms. As processes like these intensify, “increasing
competition around hardware” will prompt Taiwanese companies
to “provide a solution that is a unique service”, says Mr Yeh. “They
will have their own leading software combined with hardware.”
The new, fast-growing nature of IoT applications presents
an opportunity that Taiwanese industry is uniquely positioned to
capitalise on. “This is fast-evolving. Taiwanese people are very good at
this because we are very flexible,” says Mr Liu of Advantech. “Anything
that moves very fast belongs to Taiwan.”
Beyond seizing short-term opportunities, strategic policy will help
Taiwan ride the major trend towards greater industrial use of AI and
IoT technology. Mr Yeh describes how the government’s “Asian Silicon
Valley plan” is “making Taiwan a base for AI and IoT”. Microsoft,
Facebook and Google are all set to run AI centres and projects in the
country, which will help to develop local talent. Extending the reach
of Taiwanese industry, Google alone will train 50,000 businesses
and students across the country through its online Digital Garage
programme and facilities in Taichung and Tainan. “We are glad we
have so many big names working together with us,” says Mr Yeh.
Government programmes and incentives also foster the
development of local start-ups. Since the 1970s, many small
businesses founded by Taiwanese entrepreneurs have grown
into regional and global leaders, seeding technology clusters
along more than 360km of the country’s western coastline. Good
infrastructure, including expressways connecting cities from Taipei
in the north to Kaohsiung in the south, and high-speed rail that canmake the trip in just under two hours, fosters collaboration and
exchange between tech SMEs throughout the country and helps to
build supply chains.
Connections formed in Taiwan’s local and international business
networks have been another significant factor in the development
of local tech. “So many students have studied in the United States,
worked in Silicon Valley and finally came back to Taiwan,” says
Mr Yeh. Qualcomm, a global semiconductor firm based in the United
States, recently broke ground on a new R&D facility in Hsinchu
Science Park, building on its connections with local manufacturing
partners TSMC and KYEC as well as the Taiwanese heritage of its
top executives in Asia.
Taiwan’s “ICT industry is transforming to encompass all kinds
of solutions,” says Mr Yeh. “You can have a smart phone, smart life,
smart city and smart manufacturing, made in Taiwan, from Taiwan.
Taiwan will contribute to a better and more convenient life,” he says,
expressing the widely held vision that Taiwan can effect a thorough
digital transformation of global industry.ADVERTISEMENT
A better life,
made in Taiwan
Taiwanese leaders in AI and IoT
technology have set their sights on transforming
industry around the world“Taiwan has transformed from manufacturing
to solutions and applications,” says Walter Yeh, the
chief executive of TAITRA. Leaders in Taiwanese
tech share his view that growth in solutions is a
powerful trend.