SMEA, Amazon sign deal to establish cloud computing innovation center

2019/03/28

An agreement on establishing a cloud computing innovation center was signed by the Small and Medium Enterprise Administration under the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary of U.S.-based online retail giant Amazon.com Inc., March 26 in Taipei City.
 
 Scheduled to open in New Taipei City’s Linkou District in June, the facility aims to encourage Taiwan startups and small and medium enterprises in emerging industries like artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and machine learning to adopt cloud computing solutions. It will also cooperate with accelerators from home and abroad to help new Taiwan businesses expand to international markets and attract foreign startups to set up offices in the country.
 
 The facility—the second AWS innovation hub in Taiwan—is set to be located at the soon-to-be-launched Startup Terrace, a complex at the former site of the athletes’ village for the Taipei 2017 Summer Universiade.
 
 Speaking at the signing ceremony, Vice Premier Chen Chi-mai said the innovation center is expected to help Taiwan startups and SMEs tap opportunities and resources in global markets.
 
 The government is committed to fostering Taiwan’s economic transformation and upgrading, Chen said. This is evidenced by the establishment of international incubation bases such as the Linkou site in line with the five-plus-two innovative industries initiative, he added.
 
 According to the vice premier, Startup Terrace offers abundant benefits to tenants including low rents and early testing access to fifth-generation mobile network technology. It is hoped that such advantages and the presence of industrial leaders like AWS will spur the development of Taiwan unicorns, startups valued at US$1 billion or above, he said.
 
 The first AWS innovation center in Taiwan was set up in collaboration with New Taipei City Government last August at Taipei Far Eastern Telecom Park in the metropolis’s Banqiao District.
 
 In addition to cultivating startups, both sites are intended to serve as training hubs for cloud-based technologies, with the Linkou center expected to cultivate 2,000 talents per year through courses, seminars and workshops.
 
 A key plank in the government’s national development strategy, the five-plus-two initiative targets the high-growth sectors of biotechnology, green energy, national defense, smart machinery and IoT, as well as two core concepts: the circular economy and a new paradigm for agricultural development.

Source: Taiwan Today (https://taiwantoday.tw/index.php)