Taiwan-EU ICT Industrial Cooperation Creates a Smarter Future

The afternoon session of the "EU Investment Forum" co-organized by the European Economic and Trade Office, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is divided into three major themes. At the ICT sub-forum, heavyweight speakers from France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Luxembourg, Poland and Taiwan were invited to share their insights on the future of the ICT industry. Participants actively engaged with the speakers and asked questions at the end, and guest speakers answered with details comments. These activities and exchanges show the deepening cooperation between Taiwan and the EU in the future of the ICT industry.

6 Brilliant Keynote Speeches to Capture the EU Industrial Development Environment

In this sub-forum, a total of 6 keynote speeches were delivered to explain in detail the important and feasible ICT industry investment destinations in various countries and related investment strategies, so that Taiwanese companies can better understand the EU investment environment.
Transnational opportunities with the French Silicon Valley and the European ICT Cluster Alliance
Speaker: Véronique Péquignat, Director of International ActionsInvest in Grenoble-Alpes / Grenoble Alpes Metropole, France
Véronique Péquignat mentioned in her speech that Grenoble-Alpes is strategically located within driving distance to Lyon, Turin and Marseille. There is a population of 690,000 people, and 41,500 of them work in the field of digital technology. Grenoble-Alpes has dedicated 1st class research and technology campuses such as the Minatec Campus and regional industry clusters dedicated to competitive innovation such as the Minalogic, a micro/nano & digital cluster, and therefore the city is seen as the "Silicon Valley of France."
Luxembourg's Digital Innovation Strategy & Trusted Data Hub
Speaker：David Foy, Head of International Business Development–Digital Economy at LUXINNOVATION, Luxembourg
"Luxembourg has a strong cyber ecosystem. In 2019, 304 companies were active in cybersecurity. Luxembourg aims to become the trusted date hub of the future." , said David Foy. Luxembourg focuses on innovation, and it proposed 3 pillars to digital innovation strategy, including boosting digital infrastructure capacity, adapting innovation and ensuring a strong regulatory and intellectual property environment, making it an ideal test bed for introducing new products into the EU market. It vows to become an open, dynamic and reliable partner to companies.
ICT Environment in the Netherlands
Speaker: Alex Chen, Senior Project Manager NFIA, Netherlands
Alex Chen pointed out that the Netherlands is ranked 5th in "Global Competitiveness Report 2018-2019" by the World Economic Forum. The reason for the achievement, on one hand, is because the Netherlands is located between Europe's 3 major markets: France, Germany and England. Most European countries can be reached within 1 to 3 days with regular road transport, making the Netherlands an ideal gateway to the European market. On the other hand, the Dutch government implements the "Triple Helix Cooperation" (government, university and industry) to bring the public and private sectors together to improve on R&I, internationalization, human capital and regulation.
Alex Chen also mentioned that the cornerstone of the Dutch economy are the 3 main ports of the country: Amsterdam airport, Rotterdam seaport and "Brainport" Eindhoven. Brainport Eindhoven is the birthplace of Philips, and it is considered the most innovative tech city in Europe. Brabant, where Eindhoven is located, has a community of Taiwanese companies, including Delta, BenQ, Acer, Darfon, LiteOn, Gwintek, Advantech, etc.
Polish Digital Valley. Investment potential in ICT & Support for innovation
Speaker: Grzegorz Słomkowski, Executive Vice President of Polish Investment and Trade Agency, Poland
Grzegorz Słomkowski first pointed out that The Polish Investment and Trade Agency (PAIH) is part of the Polish Development Fund (PFR) group. Its role is to support company expansion and investments.
Companies can find the help they need to invest in Poland all in one place. Currently there are over 33 Taiwanese companies active in the Polish market, of which 8 of the investment projects received help by PAIH. Furthermore, Poland has the largest pool of developers in Central and Eastern Europe with 401,000 software developers in 2019. As Software as a Service (SaaS) is becoming increasingly popular, and the Polish government has formed strategic partnership with Google and Microsoft to speed up cloud adoption by enterprises across all industries.
Innovation and Collaboration–How Sweden became a global "Unicorn Factory"
Speaker: Vlad Månsson, Market Manager Taiwan and Director of Trade, Sweden
Vlad Månsson pointed out that Sweden is one of Europe's top PE & VC markets, and Stockholm is ranked 2nd worldwide in unicorns per capita, just after Silicon Valley. Many global tech giants like Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Google have all chosen Sweden for their data centers. The key reasons include the use of renewable energy, low energy costs, high-end connectivity, safe data storage and skilled labor force.
Moreover, Key R&D areas in Sweden include life science & medtech, transportation & automotive, smart manufacturing, and green & clean techs, and ICT is the backbone for all new innovation. Sweden is a world leader in innovation thanks to its supportive business environment and highly-skilled employees at competitive costs.
Taiwan company experience sharing
Speaker: Hsi-Chuan Hsu, Sr. Director of GM office, Everlight Intelligence Technology Co. Ltd.
Hsi-Chuan Hsu pointed out that Everlight was founded in 1983. It dedicates itself in developing smart city solutions, including smart energy, smart transportation, smart monitoring, smart education, smart architectural, smart living, smart healthcare and smart government. It has become a world leader in optoelectronic components and has entered the European smart lighting market. It is considered as a great partner for industrial cooperation by the EU city governments.

Taiwan Asked and the EU Answered, Finding out the Equation of Cooperation

As the sub-forum entered the panel discussion, Richard Lee, Chairman of TEEMA, pointed out that Taiwan and the EU have always had a solid and healthy economic and trade partnership. Taiwan is the EU's 5th largest trading partner in Asia, and the EU is Taiwan's 4th largest trading partner overall. In 2019, the bilateral trade volume reached 50.5 billion euros.
The Development Trend of EU's Cutting-edge Technologies
Following the technology trend of ICT industry, 5G、AI、Big data have become an important issue for the industry development strategy. Richard Lee asked the European panelists: "What is the industrial and digital development strategy in your MS?" In response to Lee's question on the development trend of cutting-edge technologies, Guido Tielman, Representative of Netherlands Office Taipei, said that the Dutch digitalization strategy aims to stay on top of digital trends and build a trust-worthy and resilient digital environment. First, the Netherland will continue to conduct research and development in new technologies such as AI and 5G to stay ahead of the game. Second, the Dutch government will strengthen social inclusiveness in the process of digital transformation to ensure that everyone is on board and is able to enjoy the benefits that come with digitalization.Lastly, while digitalization is creating a paradigm shift in the world, the Dutch government understands the safety concerns of the public. Therefore, security must be in place for people to have confidence in the digital future.
Vlad Månsson, Market Manager Taiwan and Director of Trade, replied that in today's world, if you do not have internet access, you are disconnected from the world. Therefore, it is the goal of the Sweden government to have every household connected with fiber by 2025. The National Council for Digitalization was also set up in 2017 with 5 key pillars: Competence and education, digital literacy and Innovation、Security、Infrastructure and connectivity、digital management and e government.
Véronique Péquignat mentioned that AI is a key strategy to the French government. The government is investing heavily in AI research centers and developing AI talents. The program not only encourages students to choose AI as their career path, but also attracts professionals from other industries to learn about AI.
Understanding the EU's International Cooperation Strategy
In promoting the strategy of international cooperation, Grzegorz Słomkowski, Executive Vice President of Polish Investment and Trade Agency, pointed out that Poland supports global cooperation, trade and investment. The PAIH has a strong global present with over 60 trade offices throughout the world, including Taiwan, allowing it to address the needs of their international partners in a timely manner. David Foy said that Luxembourg is small but agile, and it is an ideal test field for new products to be introduced into the EU market. In addition, the Luxembourg government is working hard to create a framework for data sharing in the new era and establish the best cooperation mechanism between Luxembourg and its partners.
Exploring Taiwan-EU ICT Industry Cooperation Richard Lee then asked that Taiwan is an important partner in global ICT manufacturing, especially in the field of hardware and semiconductors, while the EU member states are competitive in services and software.
How will the two sides combine their advantages to promote cooperation strategies in the future? In response to Lee's question, Véronique Péquignat pointed out that France has a strong semiconductor industry as well, and many of the companies are already working with Taiwan or have identified Taiwan as a preferred global partner. David Foy said that Luxembourg is home to many service-base companies, and Taiwanese companies excel in hardware manufacturing. The two countries are complimentary partners, and there are many area of business opportunities to be explored.
Vlad Månsson said bluntly that the Nordic Innovation House have been established in Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan, and many Sweden startup companies don't necessarily think of Taiwan when they think about global partner, and his office is working hard to change that. Guido Tielman mentioned that the Netherlands has had a long history of cooperation with Taiwan in the ICT sector.
Taiwanese and Dutch companies invest in one another's countries, and both sides should strive to form stronger and deeper cooperation. Hsi-Chuan Hsu said that Taiwan is strong in hardware manufacturing and supply chain management, and the EU is good at software design.
There is more space for bilateral cooperation. Looking at the entire event, Richard Lee pointed out that ICT stands for "Information and Communication Technology" , but recently the Taiwanese people have begun to think that ICT should stand for "Intelligence, Connected and Trust." In the era of change, "a united and supportive EU, member state governments, diverse and dynamic industries, free and open market, solid and interconnected network, forward looking vigorous policies, all these features make the EU an irreplaceable partner for Taiwan."