In response to fast changes brought by the technical innovation, the Ministry of Transportation & Communications (MOTC) has specifically established the Transportation Technology and Industry Committee to deal with innovations in governance. The purpose is to open the new future of transportation technology industry through the cross-boundary interactions of the industry-government-academia-research collaboration while connecting technology, industries, and society.

In the meeting of Transportation Technology and Industry Committee, President Tsai Ing-wen praised the establishment of said Committee that enables government ministries to keep in close interactions with each other as well. Next, in addition to strategies and startup projects in short-term, mid-term and long-term industrial development mentioned in the white paper, it is expected that both our DIGI plus and 5+2 Industrial Innovation Plan, the cross-boundary national infrastructures, can promote the greater togetherness and implementation under overall structure. In the next four years, Taiwan will spend over trillions to activate the innovations in governance with the biggest scale and the greatest number of participants from  MOTC.

Optimizing the transportation based on innovative technology, leading to an economic take-off

“The construction of transportation is an important momentum of national economic take-off. We have determination to carry out those for seeing the effectiveness,” said Tsai Ing-wen. Prospecting the future, we will continue to promote the major construction plans including intelligent transportation, track construction, intelligent seaport and airport, and more. The purpose is to let Taiwan’s industries keep up with technical development for better quality of life of the public, as well as create a silicon island with intelligent transportation for Taiwan that attracts considerable international attention. More importantly, Taiwan can be seen by the  world at its best.

Given that the emphasized attention of supervision control or engineering constructions were people’s impressions for MOTC in the past, the pace with innovations in governance requires immediate actions. Lin Chia-lung also indicated that transportation is not only a kind of interaction and communication, but also Taiwan’s largest service industry. Efforts will continue to be made to benefit industries by dealing with the current technical revolution and innovation. Therefore, under the integration dominated by MOTC, all the opinions were collected by dividing into seven groups presented in the meeting of the Committee with more than 22 group meetings held in 6 months, as well as 9 times of formal conferences and forums and 2 tasks force board meetings of commissioners. Through the detailed check, we will have investment requirements of 2 trillion in the next ten years that fuels growth in 4 trillion output value,” said Lin Chia-lung.

“Currently, Taiwan is moving closer to its vision of smart nation.” MOEA Minister Shen Jong-chin responded to efforts by MOTC as well. Taiwan has been repositioned as a global high-end manufacturing center, especially with accelerated returning Taiwanese firms and increasing investment from international high-tech corporations. “Through the future cooperation with MOTC and MOEA, it is expected that the service promotion and expanded business opportunity will enable the industries to create all-win situation.”

Bicycle and Tourism Industry Groups: Creating a Cycling Land

Taiwan, a leading country on bicycle manufacturing in the world as well as research and development base of high unit price and high performance for bicycles, is known for beautiful mountains, water, and human relationship. The purpose for Taiwan to become a world model country in bicycles is a vision, for which the MOTC wishes to join hands with the public to cover everything from knowing how to achieve the “double-effect” by combining the industrial energy to create the cycling culture.

In addition to development of deepened bicycle tourism, promoting the green modes is imperative to deal with global warming. The public transportation integrating bicycles is the most ideal green mode. Moreover, the construction of bicycle lanes and integration of tourism marketing will amplify the benefits. In the future, it is expected that we can optimize the bicycle-riding environment and focus on its safety and friendliness. The purpose is to create a friendly and down-to-earth bicycle tourism environment covering from route planning to signal design by integrating domestic materials.

Smart Railway IOT: International Competitiveness of Taiwan’s Hard Power

Railway is not only a high-tech industry, but also the largest investment of the said Committee. We will continue to promote the intelligent railways, domestic policies of electrical & mechanical services (E & M) for railways, using the concept of manufacturing cars for domestic use by local enterprises. The purpose is not only to empower the industrial technology, but also expand the participation of domestic vendors to organize a national team to improve the future strength of industries.

To promote Taiwan’s railway technology and experience onto the world stage, establishing the inspection and certification in compliance with the international standards and planning the relevant fields are the key directions of dedicating efforts in the next stage. The purpose is to let Taiwan railways play a role in the hard power so as to fully leverage the high quality.

Smart Electric Bus Plus Intelligent Public Transportation Service Industry Group: Happiness to Your Sweet Home

When it comes to the cross-boundary integration and value-added application of public transportation, we need to implement the cross-boundary integration among systems. The integration includes various aspects such as ticket, schedule, and even the service level. The Intelligent Public Transportation Service Industry Group will use the concept of “Happiness Bus” to become a part of smart cities through regional integration and big data application covering from smart and electrified media to the whole management of intelligent road network, allowing claims services to be completed all at once.

In view of the electric bus as being an international trend, MOTC expects to comprehensively replace the existing buses with electric buses before 2030 so as to solve the air pollution problem in the cities. Meanwhile, we need to create the relevant domestic industry chain of the electric bus, including techniques for self-driving urban vehicles, charging problems, and more. In addition, we need to think about how to simultaneously establish the certification standards with international ones.

Technology Industry Group for Smart E-Scooter: From Safety to Sharing-To the New Future

Although the global technology currently focuses on self-driving vehicles with four- wheel drive (4WD), there is still a huge demand for scooters in the markets in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. Therefore, the development of e-scooters becomes an important task as well. The first challenges we will face are the safety of smart e-scooters and trend of connected vehicle. How to use the big data technology to increase the safety and convenience has become the key point in the future.

Moreover, the sharing innovation and services of smart scooters are the important strength that promotes the changes in the future industries. Especially with the business model of scooter sharing becoming mature, it is expected that we can help the motorcycle industry move toward a completely fresh future.

Intelligent Seaport and Airport Plus Intelligent Logistics Service Industry Group: Toward Quality, Safety, Efficiency and Sustainability

In view of the investment in intelligent seaport and airport is the second only to railway construction, it is expected that we can create the 500 billion output value in the future. In terms of the concrete actions, we need to utilize the technology to increase the quality, safety, efficiency, and sustainability of seaport and airport, including dynamic management systems of vessels in the surrounding waters and smart e-Gate. In addition, we need to strengthen the services and create the advantages through technology. The most important thing is the realization of industrialization, domestication, and informatization.

Secondly, in terms of intelligent logistics, the purpose is to integrate the industrial platforms of upper, middle and lower stream, plan the free trade zones and fully satisfy the demand of industrial development. Moreover, we hope to provide the assistance in upgrades for logistics industry in response to the latest omni-channel logistics trend at moment.

Technology Industry Group for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV): Acceleration of Experimental Field and Management

In response to current application of UAV and future industrial development, we expect to present Taiwan to the world through the cross-boundary cooperation. The domestic industrial technology has a leading position, but lacking of practical application, opportunity of technological challenges and experimental field that require the integration of ministries. Secondly, in terms of regulations, it is worthwhile paying close attention to management of guidelines through law revisions, such as how the flight path of UAV coordinates and cooperate with Air Traffic Control (ATC).

Moreover, the attitude of local government will affect the future industrial development as well. The purpose is to facilitate a good communication and energy management. Finally, we need to speed up the talent cultivation of research and development as well as management so as to contribute to more energy for industries.

Experimental Field of 5G Intelligent Transportation Plus Technology Industry Group for Transportation Big Data:
Implementation of 5G Imagination and Creation of Ecology Laboratory

To create the intelligent transportation system based on “human oriented traffic that has an immediate impact on the public,” the experimental field of 5G intelligent transportation aims at four major directions, such as establishing the new-generation transportation service and infrastructures via cross-boundary cooperation, promoting the standards in novel transportation industry and certification mechanism of applications, developing the measures regarding applicable regulations of experimental field for transportation technology and novel services, as well as cooperating to create an industrial value chain so as to expand the industrial benefits. We will aggressively create a benchmarking model of MaaS at the international level for Taiwan by using the concept of creating the ecology laboratory with stable investment and implementation of 5G imagination.

“I believe that the 5G application is absolutely not limited to telecommunication and transportation. The technical innovation will continue to expand and have effect on each industry. The government departments shall further have forward thinking and help the industries face the upcoming future,” said Lin Chia-lung.

By planning the new future of transportation technology, the Transportation Technology and Industry Committee has provided the cross-ministerial integration of strategies and actions to promote the white paper on transportation technology. In addition, we hope to promote the industries and support Taiwan’s economy to move forward in the future through national development plans.