The National Development Council (NDC) has formulated the “Digital Government Program 2.0 of Taiwan (2020-2025)” to accelerate various response measures to promote the government’s digital transformation

As the world has entered an age of digitalisation, digital government, data governance, and strengthening of national development momentum have become the trend of governments of all countries, including Taiwan.

The concept of digital government refers to improving the government’s service to the people and enterprises by data and digital technology. Taiwan’s government uses data as the basis, makes good use of digital technology, strengthens government efficiency and national security, and combines government services with people’s needs to optimise the quality of governance decision-making.

Looking at the development trend of digital governments in advanced countries, the role of information and communication technology in Taiwan’s public governance has evolved from the early management of public affairs to the current innovative governance efficiency, and will gradually change to the development goal of creating public service value in the future. The use of emerging technologies to optimise the government service process, innovate the service style for the people, and meet the needs of the people has become the direction of continuous promotion of digital government.

Taiwan plans a state-level transformation strategy for the development of Taiwan’s government, industry, talent, and society. The National Development Council (NDC) has formulated the “Digital Government Program 2.0 of Taiwan (2020-2025)” to accelerate various response measures to promote the government’s digital transformation.

NDC will follow the strategy of the plan to coordinate the implementation of various ministries, strengthen the transformation of cross-domain service processes from the needs of the people, and use a safe and reliable data transmission platform to share data across agencies. The government will continue to offer its efforts in the following tasks:

• Enhance digital infrastructure around all government agency: With the maturity of Internet technology and the popularisation and application of 5G wireless broadband communications, we will continue to inject resources to strengthen the digital infrastructure and support the government’s innovative service operations.
• Strengthen the release and application of data: NDC will actively promote the data management measures of public agencies, give priority to strengthening data standards, data interface standards, etc., and attach importance to the release of high-value data, such as map information, transportation and other data sets. It is necessary to establish a management mechanism for the public to apply to use and specify the rights and obligations of the use of data.
• Implement evidence-based governance decisions: The digital transformation of the government is demonstrated in the policy decision-making of using data to improve the efficiency of government governance. In the future, the applications of big data analysis in governance issues will be made to quickly respond to external challenges.
• Construct data-based public governance: Through data analysis to see the needs of the people, and integrate government resources to support the people in solving problems of life, and take the initiative to propose measures for the people. In the future, digital applications will use data to drive service transformation, making data the core of services.

Apart from formulating a digital government programme, NDC has also formulated the Action Plan for Enhancing Taiwan’s Startup Ecosystem. As reported by OpenGov Asia, Taiwan’s startup ecosystem has blossomed over the last few years, with good performance in the international arena. The good performance is partly because of the Taiwan government’s effort in pushing forward policies of innovation and entrepreneurship in recent years.

NDC proposes 5 major policies:

• Providing ample early-stage funding for startups
• Developing talent and adjusting regulations
• Building partnership between startups and the government
• Providing startups with various exit channels
• Helping startups tap into global markets

By putting this plan into action, they can effectively create an environment favourable to startups. To do this effectively, all agencies involved need to take initiative to implement this plan to demonstrate the government’s commitment and capability.