Good news to share! Taiwan officially established the Ministry of Digital Affairs, or moda, Aug. 27, adding another key plank to the digital democratic alliance.

One of the moda’s most important tasks is to build “digital resilience for all.” In the past, by opening up the decision-making process and developing a collaboration mechanism, Taiwan's discordant public opinion was transformed into open-ended “People-Public-Private Partnerships”. These are supported by various increasingly well-connected players in the industry-government-academic-research circle.

Over the past two years, these links grew into one of Taiwan's strongest weapons in combating COVID-19.

By releasing open application programming interfaces and collaborating with civic-tech communities, Taiwan established the 1922 SMS Contact Tracing System. This enabled the people to fully understand relevant information and, at the same time, confirm self-footprints safely and effectively while ensuring the shared defense of society. It can be seen that on the basis of the PPPP, Taiwan boasts a sound foundation for digital resilience.

The moda is taking a three-pronged approach to deepening digital resilience: social inclusion, industrial transformation, and cybersecurity response.

Social inclusion refers to the mutual support of the people as a whole. For example, if one sees dangerous disinformation or misinformation, one's initial response is to verify and share the results rather than disseminate the problematic material.

“Digital competence” truly is one of the most important infrastructures in free and open societies. The moda will continue to promote the democratic power of the interpersonal network and strengthen the digital resilience of the Internet.

At an industry level, the impact of coronavirus over the past two years has fostered a root-and-branch spirit of cooperation among firms. The new norm is to transform, exchange lessons, and change and improve together. 

This is now the cornerstone of digital resilience thinking. As the agency tasked with overseeing and coordinating related constructor efforts, the moda will integrate resources through existing solutions such as the TCloud platform, support industry transformation and jointly lead Taiwan's digital development.

Recently, the country faced an explosive increase in the instance of foreign interference, and relevant agencies were quick to adjust structurally in response. 

This is also the third aspect the moda will focus on: Cybersecurity response. After all, digital resilience is not just about resisting blows, but about recovering swiftly while learning so as to emerge stronger together.

It is important to appreciate that the establishment of the moda is not about imposing additional control and regulation. It is about fostering digital resilience with one eye firmly on development and inclusion.

Taiwan is an island of resilience celebrated as one of the world's most dynamic democracies. The moda will strengthen the country's standing in this regard, as well as collaborate with global partners in creating a new digital democracy model. The onus is on forces for good to accept this challenge and free the future for the benefit of all.