Taiwan holds digital inclusion forum

The Taiwanese government has conducted a digital opportunity forum in Taipei to discuss the development on digital opportunity centres programme aimed at narrowing the digital divide among Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies. Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang recalled that during the APEC leadership summit in Bangkok in 2003, Taiwan proposed the formation of APEC Digital Opportunity Centres (ADOC) to bridge the digital divide in member APEC nations with Taiwan’s technology capabilities.
According to Shih, ADOC has drawn 10 members and set up 81 centres overseas, where over 240,000 talents have been trained. The proportion of women to be trained has increased from 16 per cent of the total to this year’s 25 per cent. ADOC has also worked to enhance the digital abilities of small- and medium-sized enterprises to help them gain more business. Attendees at the forum included Stan Shih, founder of Acer Inc., who doubles as the convener of the ADOC 2.0 Project Instructions Committee. He said improvements in digital hardware and software have contributed to devices’ ease of use, which is conducive to narrowing the digital divide. ADOC has collaborated with seven APEC economies – Chile, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines since its inception.

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