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III won 2017 eAsia Award First Prize in the category of Creating Inclusive Digital Opportunities
Date: 2017/09/13
Picture Description:
By the project of "Reducing Digital Gap and Rural Area Service", III won The First Prize in the category of Creating Inclusive Digital Opportunities in the competition for 2017 eAsia Awards. III International Division Director Mei-Li Hsiao (right) and Group Leader Hsiu-Ying Lin (left) represented to receive the award.
The collective press conference of 2015 Asia Pacific Council for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (AFACT) annual meeting and biennial eASIA Awards was held on September 13th at Taipei International Convention Center.
Since 2002, III spontaneously initiated the project to establish for Taiwan Digital Opportunity Center (DOC) and coordinated various government departments and enterprises to participate collectively so as to create an innovative operation model which is able to be launched internationally. After the first round and the final stage rigorous competition, III defeated more than 20 participating teams from Korea and Bangladesh and won The First Prize of Creating Inclusive Digital Opportunities from 2017 eAsia Awards !
During the process of facilitating the development of Taiwan transforming into a modern information society, III thoroughly understand the problems of digital gap between urban and rural areas resulted from the progress of information and communication technologies. In order to proactively narrow the gap and to help domestic minorities and groups in suburban areas excavating digital opportunities, in 2004, III established at Nan-Tou Jhong-Liao township, where the center of 921 earthquake was located, the first all directional, multi-functional community digital opportunity center, which provides software and hardware computer resources, cultivates talents of information and communication domain, assists the operation of e-commerce, and sets up operation mechanisms for local organizations as well as promotes the development of community industries. III successfully utilizes its core competences to help minorities and vulnerable groups in rural areas in Taiwan discover digital opportunities and reduce digital gaps between cities and countries. Established with the help of III, the model of digital opportunity center undoubtedly creates an innovative operation paradigm for Taiwan.
Currently, the model of digital opportunity center has been successfully duplicated and applied to 319 different counties in rural areas of Taiwan. In addition to coaching and providing assistance to the first batch 7 digital opportunity centers established in 2005, III further utilizes the concept and approach of supportive service platforms. Congregating the resources and strength of the first batch digital opportunity centers, III set up another 7 new digital opportunity centers from 2008 to 2011. More importantly, III brought the project even further to Ji-An township in Hua-Lian, one of the satellite cities along the east coast of Taiwan, to construct the 15th digital opportunity center, where domestic information talents and professional industry manager could be cultivated and trained.
III has long dedicated to the cultivation of local youngsters at the 15 digital opportunity centers by self-raised funds. It is estimated that the project cultivated more than 60 domestic seed teachers and attracted approximately 10,000 participants to join the information classes. By applying the approach of Mobile DOC, III extended the functions of digital opportunity centers into 55 remote counties and aboriginal tribes and helped increase community business value up to 26,800,000 NTDs. What is more imperative is that the actions of digital care actually bring confidence to many minorities for that they can use digital tools to change their lives and open up the windows of opportunities.
What worth mentioning is that to respond to the transformation brought about by the advent of digital economy, III help locals of different genders and ages be familiar with calling to others by Skype and communicate with sons and grandsons by instant messengers such as MSN, FB, and LINE. Furthermore, since the aged are trained to be able to construct their own websites as well as blogs and young kids are taught to deliver their love by giving out used computers assembled by themselves, they can truly realize the meaning of their lives. Also, with digital capabilities, people in the community could construct and develop distinct community industries by themselves so as to inadvertently gather community awareness and facilitate community development. In the future, III will continue to promote and coach the development of various digital opportunity center. By combining the resources of industry, official and university, III will further strengthen the information application capability of local industries and cultivate domestic digital talents so as to increase the competitiveness of domestic industries and facilitate the prosperous development of local industries in different areas of Taiwan!
【Media Contact】
ID(III): Shiu-Ying Lin
Tel: 886- 955-247689
Planning & Evaluation Division(III):Meredith Chang, Joy Yen, Freesia Shen
Tel: 886-2-6631-8638、6631-8640、6631-8643