| James Huang, chairman of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), speaks during a press conference at the Lotte Hotel Seoul, Thursday. / Courtesy of Hill+Knowlton Strategies |
By Baek Byung-yeul
Taiwan wants to expand cooperation with Korea in the ICT sector, recognizing the latter's recent introduction of the world's first commercial fifth-generation (5G) mobile network, the chief of Taiwan's trade and investment promotion agency said Thursday.
"Korea became the world's first country to commercialize 5G mobile network (in April) and successfully entered the 5G era. Taiwan is also playing a pivotal role in the 5G era as it recently hosted an international conference for standardization of 5G. As both are forefront leaders in the ICT sector, I expect to see collaborations between Taiwan and Korea not only in 5G but also in other ICT sectors such as artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things (IoT)," James Huang, chairman of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), said during a press conference in Seoul.
Huang visited Korea to promote the upcoming COMPUTEX tech fair, which will take place in Taipei for five days from May 28 to June 1. Stating that Korea is his only destination for promotion, the chairman said the tech fair will offer an opportunity to get a glimpse of the latest technology, services and products.
Inaugurated in 1981, COMPUTEX is one of the largest IT fairs in Asia. This year's COMPUTEX event will take place at Taipei World Trade Center and Taipei International Convention Center for five days from May 28 to June 1. A TAITRA official said this year's COMPUTEX fair will shed light on AI, IoT, 5G, blockchain, innovative startups, games, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).
"The COMPUTEX fair has enabled visitors to see the latest IT trends over the past 39 years. In the 2018 event, we had more than 1,700 buyers from Korea, which is the fifth-largest among the participating countries. More than 20 Korean companies also featured last year," he said adding some 1,700 companies from across the world will showcase their products and technology.
Diann-wen Tang, representative of Taipei Mission in Korea, said the COMPUTEX tech fair will become a chance to expand exchanges and cooperation in ICT.
"The trade volume between Taiwan and Korea was $35.5 billion in 2018, a 12.28 percent increase compared to the previous year. Taiwan is Korea's sixth-largest export market and Korea is the fifth-largest export market of Taiwan. These figures show the relationship between the two will become closer and more powerful," he said. "The COMPUTEX event is one of the representative tech fairs in Asia and it will work as the best place to upgrade the relationship between the two."
Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) will install a Korea pavilion booth at the fair featuring Korean startups.