In his fourth speech at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting, Zhang Zhongmou, founder of Taiwan’s largest chipmaker TSMC, emphasized how Taiwan is using digital technology to control the epidemic and the important role it plays in the digital technology supply chain.
Zhang joined other leaders of the 20 nations, including U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a videoconference held Friday (Nov. 20). Zhang Zhongmou joked that he was the only representative who was not a “leader”. This is the third time that Chang has represented Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen at the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting.
In his speech, he mentioned that digital technology has undoubtedly played an important role in controlling the epidemic. For example, he said, Taiwan’s health authorities are using the Global Positioning System (GPS) on cell phones to track recent contacts of people diagnosed with neo-coronary pneumonia and quickly isolate them; Taiwan is also using digital technology to assist in the establishment of a mask rationing program.
As of November 20, only 611 cases of new coronary pneumonia have been diagnosed and 7 deaths have occurred in Taiwan. In addition, at the economic level, Taiwan’s GDP is expected to have a positive growth of more than 1.5% by 2020.
TSMC, founded by Zhang Zhongmou, is believed to lead the future development of 5G and artificial intelligence. For example, artificial intelligence is one of the branches that can improve medical efficiency and healthcare system performance.
“No single economy in the world currently has a complete digital technology supply chain, and in fact, no single economy can afford a complete digital technology supply chain that is also internationally competitive,” he said. However, Chang said, “Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) has a pretty significant part of this supply chain, which includes everything from semiconductor manufacturing equipment, semiconductor design and manufacturing, all the way through to systems engineering and assembly.”
In response to media questions, he said that if Taiwan and APEC members are to maintain the resilience of the technology supply chain, “especially a few large companies, they have to, always have to, always will have to maintain their competitiveness and even increase their competitiveness.”
Taiwan’s National Development Council Chairman Gong Ming-hsin also explained at a press conference on the 16th to participate in the APEC Ministerial Meeting, where he emphasized how to use digital technology to provide high-quality, people-friendly digital health services, but also expressed Taiwan’s willingness to assist economies in the fight against epidemics determination.
Ming-Hsin Gong said that the concept and spirit of the aforementioned health care issue have been included in the Leaders’ Declaration. The leaders recognized that digital technology can help defend people’s safety and health, protect the Asia-Pacific region from health threats, and enhance the resilience, growth, and sustainability of health systems,” the declaration said.
In addition, Taiwan Executive Yuan Council Member Deng Zhenzhong also expressed his views on trade and investment issues during the meeting, stressing that Taiwan fully supports the multilateral trading system and the work of the World Trade Organization (WTO) so that the international community can continue to maintain an open, fair, and free trade environment.
The day before, Xi Jinping said at the APEC meeting that China welcomes the completion of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) and will actively consider joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP). Taiwan has not yet been able to join the two agreements.
“I think we (Taiwan) should be very willing to join any such free trade agreement, bilateral or multilateral,” Chang expressed his views on regional trade agreements during a press conference in response to a question from the Voice of America.
Taiwan’s Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Meihua said in another press conference on the morning of the 21st that this was the first time we had seen Xi Jinping mention in public that he was considering joining the CPTPP, but that Taiwan had been amending its domestic laws and regulations since 10 years ago in preparation for joining the CPTPP; institutionally, the CPTPP has a relatively high threshold for China.
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