Cross-Strait Cooperation in IT Sector Broadens

Taipei, May 10, 2006 (CENS)--Mainland Chinese Vice Minister for Information Industry, Jiang Yaoping, said yesterday that a cross-strait forum held in Taipei today marks wider cooperation, deeper topics and broader interchange than the one held last year in Beijing.

Jiang made the remarks upon his arrival in Taiwan. He led a 45-member delegation to take part in the forum, which addresses establishments of technology standards for the information industry of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Jiang said the Taipei forum would hash out the standards for green energy and semiconductor lighting in addition to the standards for audio videocoding, TD-SCDMA third-generation mobile communications, mobile storage and flat-panel display industries, which were on the agenda of the Beijing forum. Taiwanese attendees and their mainland Chinese counterparts of the Beijing meeting co-organized four "expert committees" to handle the four issues after the event.

Taiwanese participants in the Beijing meeting came from a fund organized by 21 information-technology enterprises. The Taiwanese enterprises organized the fund to jointly map out standards for IT industries on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait with mainland Chinese counterparts.

In light of the vast mainland market for IT products and China' s determination to draw up standards for its IT market, Taiwanese IT suppliers are eager to join the mainland in the work.

Chairman S.S. Hsu of the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association pointed out that mobile storage and 3G mobile communications would be the most noticeable topics at the Taipei forum considering that the mainland' s authorities would issue at least three 3G licenses and more of the licenses by the end of next year.

The mainland has unseated the United States as the world' s largest market for mobile communications, with over 200 million people connected to mobile networks. These people are considered to be able to shift to 3G systems from 2G anytime.