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At 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 12 local time (9:00 a.m. on January 13 Taipei time), President Tsai Ing-wen and her accompanying delegation, who are currently in Central America on a trip codenamed the "Ing-Jie Project," attended a ceremony in El Salvador where Acer Inc. donated the teaching module for its CloudProfessor educational development kit.
In remarks, President Tsai stated that among Taiwan's many international cooperation projects, those designed to narrow the digital divide are some of the most important. For such projects to succeed, relying simply on the government is not sufficient. Private-sector involvement is absolutely necessary.
President Tsai noted that Acer has long been a strong supporter of computer literacy, from the Microprofessor in the 1980s to the “CloudProfessor” today. In Southeast Asia and Latin America, Acer has supported Taiwan’s government and NGOs in their efforts to promote computer education cooperation projects, thereby helping people connect to the Internet and take part in the digital age. At the same time, Acer's efforts have shown the world Taiwan's prowess in the field of information and communications technology.
President Tsai stated that CloudProfessor is a very meaningful educational development kit for the Internet of Things (IoT). Just last month, said the president, during the Information Technology Month activities in Taipei, she experienced the allure of CloudProfessor, and even she herself was tempted to take a kit back home.
The president further pointed out that CloudProfessor can help children, youth, and in fact persons of any age to familiarize themselves with programming language and develop logical thinking within the IoT framework, and learn how to use digital technologies to tap into their creativity and solve problems.
President Tsai stated that information technology constitutes the core of Taiwan's competitiveness. We understand, she noted, that digital expertise is a basic competency that people in the coming generation will need to have, which is why the government is preparing to include coding in its public education curriculum. At the same time, with this understanding in mind, Taiwan hopes to integrate more resources and help diplomatic allies to build up more fully developed networks for science and technology education. We are willing to continue supporting the promotion of CloudProfessor in Latin America, and to develop more technology education cooperation projects to ensure that digital knowledge takes deep root, said the president.
President Tsai specially thanked Robert Wang (王定愷), General Manager of the BYOC Business Unit at Acer Inc., and said that these efforts support Taiwan's diplomacy and demonstrate an enterprise's commitment to fulfilling its corporate social responsibility.
President Tsai stressed that this type of work is not a matter of one-way aid, but embodies the spirit of “mutual assistance for mutual benefits”. A Taiwanese company, by taking part in cooperation on science and technology education, can develop a pool of local talent for itself. Acer reportedly has trained 500 CloudProfessor seed instructors in Latin America. In the future, these people will all serve as links between Taiwan's ICT firms and local markets, and will be ideal helpers as our firms work to establish themselves in the region. The president called on the young people present at the ceremony to use the existing foundation to interact and cooperate more with Acer, and thereby develop technology education projects that answer more closely to the needs of local communities.
Following the conclusion of the president's remarks, Robert Wang briefed listeners on the project to promote the teaching module for CloudProfessor. Salvadoran Education Minister Carlos Canjura then outlined his country's technology education program, and thanked Taiwan for helping El Salvador move toward joining the international mainstream. With President Tsai looking on as a witness, ROC Ambassador to El Salvador Florencia Miao-hung Hsie (謝妙宏) donated the teaching module for CloudProfessor to Education Minister Canjura.
