Breaking News, World News and Taiwan News.

Updated Sunday, February 5, 2012 0:02 am TWN, The China Post news staff

Sponsors
▪	Save 75% for all hotels in Shanghai, Beijing and whole China. Lowest rates for Flights in China.
▪	Get the best deals for Guangzhou Hotels or choose from more than 10,000 hotels in 499 Chinese cities.
▪	Find great real time deals on China Flights. Book flights to China or China domestic flights 24/7.
▪	Buy china wholesale products from reliable chinese wholesalers on DHgate.com!

New minister without portfolio hopes to focus on ICT systems

A newly designated minister without portfolio expressed worries about the difficulty in the future implementation of new information and communications technology (ITC) policies during a meeting with President Ma Ying-jeou, who, in turn, promised to help fully promote the policies once officially formulated.

Simon Chang, who will be sworn in on Feb. 6 as a new minister without portfolio to take charge of technology-related affairs after quitting the post as director of Google Asia Regional Infrastructure, told President Ma that after assuming the new post he hoped to focus promotion on some selected ICT systems widely used by the public.

Chang said if the selected ICT systems are implemented well, then local people will feel the government efforts in improving ICT services for consumers; but if not, massive complaints from the public will emerge.

But the formulation and implementation of any new policies for selected ICT systems requires the combined efforts from other related government units, and can hardly be done if only based on his capacity as a minister without portfolio.

In response, President Ma promised to Chang that once any key ICT system is selected for priority implementation, he will instruct all related government units to join forces to support the implementation of the new system or policy.

After the meeting, Chang told reporters that he felt that President Ma is quite willing to accept new technical knowledge, and that the talks with Ma are quite constructive.

Chang made some suggestions to Ma concerning the major direction for the future development of the ICT industry in Taiwan.

As the private sector has developed many advantages in the development of the ICT industry, the government should make better use of such advantages by formulating policies to allow full play of such industrial strength by private enterprises, Chang noted.

In addition, Chang also stressed the importance of maintaining fair market competition to secure a sound development of the nation's ICT industry.

Furthermore, it's also quite imperative for the government to boost promotion of ICT applications.

As the government is promoting six newly emerging industries and four intelligent industries, Chang said he will move to learn the contents of the development projects for the these industries and can see what he can do to help carry out the projects.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here