During a meeting with Google Inc. Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt on the morning of November 9, President Ma Ying-jeou stressed that the ROC government will continue its policies to promote and encourage the development of the information technology industry. The government, he said, will also work to ensure the protection of intellectual property rights in Taiwan, create a good environment for the development of the industry, and encourage training of talented individuals, thereby ensuring that the needs of the local information technology industry are properly accommodated.
President Ma noted that Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998 and that the company has grown steadily for the past 12 years. Google is currently the world's largest search engine and information enterprise, he commented, adding that in recent years the number of Internet users in Asia has increased substantially, with the region becoming the fastest area of growth in the world. In an effort to set down stronger roots in the Asian market, Google five years ago established a branch in Taiwan. Over this period, the company has strived to provide Taiwan with a diverse range of network services, including a search engine, maps, the YouTube platform, and Gmail. Google's products are enormously popular, and the company has considerable influence on the development of the network services industry. Meanwhile, the Android mobile platform promoted by Google, as well as its Chrome operating system, have been adopted for use in HTC mobile phones and ASUS tablet computers, the president pointed out, saying that this proves the extremely close links between Google and Taiwan industry.
President Ma stated that the ROC government has consistently placed the utmost importance on the development of the information technology industry, and that the government has specially designated "innovative R&D" as an important focus of policy. The president pointed out that the Economist Intelligence Unit in September of this year released a report—Investment for the Future: Benchmarking IT Industry Competitiveness 2011—in which Taiwan is ranked 13th in the world in its IT Industry Competitiveness Index 2011. Furthermore, Taiwan is ranked third in the category of R&D Environment. Taiwan’s overall ranking is behind only Singapore in Asia, and ahead of Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong.
The president mentioned that the government is presently proactively promoting its Asia-Pacific Data Center Project in an effort to foster diverse and innovative applications and services in the Business to Customer (B2C) sector and to enhance Taiwan's data logistics abilities in the Business to Business (B2B) sector. The government hopes to tap into the application innovative service R&D capabilities of international software firms, as well as the strengths of Taiwan’s firms in the application of information and communication technology, as it works together with them to build up an Asia-Pacific data center .
President Ma also stated that besides its outstanding infrastructure and well-rounded regulatory environment, Taiwan has a competitive edge in underwater cable links. The Sea-Me-We 3 submarine cable, the China-US Cable Network, and the FLAG North Asia Loop cable all play important functions, and are particularly crucial in natural disaster prevention and rescue work, he said. For instance, former Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, who visited Taiwan earlier this year, said during her stay here that after the Great East Japan Earthquake in March, Yahoo Japan was able to continue to provide service thanks to a submarine cable link that passed through Taiwan.
The president furthermore stated that last year the two sides of the Taiwan Strait signed the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, and since then the telecommunications authorities of both sides have agreed to jointly lay a direct cross-strait underwater cable between Kinmen and Xiamen, which upon completion will be the shortest international submarine cable that links the United States, Southeast Asia, and countries from the rest of the world to the mainland China market. This shows that Taiwan will continue to be an important hub via which submarine cables from throughout the world link up with mainland China, he said.
In addressing Google's decision to invest in Taiwan with its establishment of a data center in Changhua County, central Taiwan, the president said that this news was extremely exciting to the industry and the public. He expressed his hopes that Google will forge even closer links with Taiwan's information industry, including expanding its cooperation with Taiwan in the areas of software, content, systems, services, and eco-friendly products. At the same time, the president said he hopes to see even more innovation-oriented talent trained in the course of the development of applications and services for the Android mobile platform and Chrome operating system.
President Ma reiterated that four years ago during his campaign for the presidency he unveiled a vision to transform Taiwan into a global center for innovation, an economic and trade hub in the Asia-Pacific, a global headquarters for Taiwan companies, and a regional headquarters for foreign companies. Concrete results have already been seen in this regard, he said, commenting that Google's decision to invest in a data center in Taiwan is a vote of support for the policies he has introduced. President Ma also expressed his desire for Google to continue to increase its investment here.
Chairman Schmidt expressed his appreciation to President Ma for taking time out of his busy schedule to meet with him and said he hopes to have even greater opportunities to cooperate with Taiwan's technology sector. He mentioned he hopes the two can create a win-win environment that will provide an even greater range of services for consumers.
Chairman Schmidt was accompanied to the Presidential Office by Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Hwang Jung-chiou (黃重球) to meet with President Ma. Also attending the meeting was National Security Council Advisor Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦).