In both technological capabilities and local implementation, Taiwan is taking the lead in “smart city” development. On October 19, the think tank Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) announced that five communities in Taiwan were among the 21 recipients of the ICF Smart21 2017 awards. The prize recognizes communities that apply “information and communications technology (ICT) to create…

More than a year after horrific gas pipeline blasts claimed over 30 lives, Kaohsiung City is mending its wounds, seeking answers, and assigning blame. First the ground shook. Milliseconds later came fireballs shooting as high as 50 meters into the sky. Roads split in half, swallowing cars and motorcycles. Vehicles were tossed onto four-story rooftops….

    Proposed legislation would require religious foundations to establish internal financial auditing systems. Earlier this year, the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, Taiwan’s largest and arguably most revered charity organization due to its efficient response at times of natural disasters, quite unexpectedly found itself under heavy attack by the domestic media and netizens over the…

Rebuffed in its bid to be among the bank’s founders, Taiwan is expected to apply for regular membership. Several hours before the midnight deadline on the evening of March 31, Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford sent a fax to the preparatory office for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Beijing expressing Taiwan’s desire to…