Caption: On August 15th, the permanent secretariat of AFACT in Taiwan held the international forum on "Establishing Digital Economic Communities in the Asia-Pacific Region" and brought together domestic and international experts and scholars in the Indo-Pacific region. From right:
Dr. Cheng-Hong Cho, Head of Delegation of Taiwan, AFACT and President of Institute for Information Industry, Mr. Akio Suzuki, Opinion Leader in APAC for negotiations with international NGOs in sustainable tourism, Mr. Tahseen Ahmad Khan, Vice Chairman of UN/CEFACT, Audrey Tang, Minister-Designate of Ministry of Digital Affairs, Mr. Sachin Mehta, Coordinator of Travel & Tourism Domain of UN/CEFACT, Mr. Tain-Tsair Hsu, Chairman of the Board of Commerce Development Research Institute.


Caption:
The permanent secretariat of AFACT in Taiwan was officially launched on August 15th. The picture showed the group photo of international experts and scholars from Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region.

Invited to participate in the event, Minister Audrey Tang, Minister-Designate of the Ministry of Digital Affairs of Taiwan, further pointed out that there are three major expectations from the public toward the Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA): (1) To shape the paradigm of co-creation in digital services, and to reinforce the resilience of government services; (2) To complete the data altruism ecosystem, and to expand the horizon of personal data empowerment and data dignity; and (3) To promote the development of technology on the civil side, and data democratization for citizens across the globe, make the vision of a smart country a reality, and apply the concept of data governance to a larger scale. Through the development of digital trade and digital economy, MODA expected to achieve the goals of commercial and public welfare applications, which are in line with the vision of international organizations such as AFACT and UN/CEFACT. Through cross-border data exchange, unlimited possibilities of "active altruism and co-creation" are created.

Tain-Tsair Hsu, Chairman of the Board of Commerce Development Research Institute, also said that many experts from Taiwan have long participated in the travel/tourism domain working group of AFACT and UN/CEFACT, assisting in the green paper, white paper and other plans for the development of digital information applications for sustainable tourism. Facing the volatile global digital wave, Taiwan's niche in the digital economy and trade will surely make its strong commercial strength shine.

UN/CEFACT, which has been established for 35 years, is the most important organization of the United Nations to promote global information standards and e-commerce. Mr. Tahseen Ahmad Khan, Vice Chairman of UN/CEFACT, said in his speech that AFACT has long been cooperating with AFACT's related working groups in the Asia-Pacific region to develop associated technologies and applications regarding sustainable tourism, e-commerce, and electronic data exchange, and has successively put forward relevant suggestions or reports for innovative technology service models such as online data exchange in related industries, which also show that AFACT is an important international cooperation organization of the UN/CEFACT.

Tung-hua Tai, the host of the UN/CEFACT Sustainable Tourism Business Standards White Paper Project, mentioned in the forum that the rapid development of online travel agencies such as AirBnB and Agoda is based on the establishment of the hotel industry API data exchange standard developed by the Open Travel Alliance since 1999. However, the tourism industry is very extensive, such as restaurants, experience itineraries, tour groups, attractions, etc., and there is no API standard; if UN/CEFACT and AFACT can have more diversified cooperation in the "standardization of tourism data", and act as the units to promote the standardization of travel and tourism data exchange, which will help tourism operators around the world to connect with each other, and also bring more new opportunities for Taiwan tourism.

Taiwan has once again assumed the permanent secretariat of AFACT this year and will serve as the host of AFACT 2023 next year. Therefore, Taiwan will take more active actions to participate in international activities directly and indirectly, and assist in formulating relevant information standards around the world. In the future, Taiwan and other countries will have more cooperation on sustainable development goals and work together to promote trade facilitation in the digital economy era.

【Media Contact】
Digital Transformation Research Institute (III) - International Division
Lulu Chen Tel: (02) 6631-8575 luluchen@iii.org.tw
Center for Marketing Strategy (III)
Joy Yen Tel: (02) 6631-8635 joyyen@iii.org.tw
Ying Shen Tel: (02) 6631-8643 yingshen@iii.org.tw
Esther Huang Tel: (02) 6631-8641 estherhuang@iii.org.tw