Upgrading Taiwan's digital infrastructure and capability is an important component of the government's future development plans. Audrey Tang is the first cabinet minister to be charged with devising and implementing a master plan to create a "digital Taiwan". As one of the five elements of the government's NT$880 billion "Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program", NT$46 billion will be invested in 19 digital projects over eight years to build an integrated public IoT services network and a 5G network by 2020, among other initiatives. Through these investments the government aims to drive further private investment of NT$238 billion in mobile, fixed line, cable and optical networks, as well as other services. At this event Minister Tang will outline some of the government's main plans and initiatives and engage in an open discussion with representatives of the ECCT's Technology and Telecommunications, Media and Content (TMC) committees.

About the speaker
Audrey Tang (唐鳳) was appointed as Minister Without Portfolio (行政院政務委員) responsible for digital matters in October 2016. In this position she has been tasked with making the government more transparent and making data about how it works available to all as well helping to set up Taiwan's "Asian Silicon Valley," a new technology zone devoted to the "Internet of Things" industry.

Minister Tang is a self-educated computer prodigy who has worked for a number of local and internationally-renowned technology companies as a consultant and programmer. She began her career as Chief Technology Officer, Inforian Inc before going on to work as a Consultant for BenQ and President of OurInternet Inc. She is known for revitalizing the Perl and Haskell computer languages as well as building the EtherCalc online spreadsheet system in collaboration with Dan Bricklin. In recent years she has worked as a consultant on cloud services localization and computational linguistics for Apple and as a consultant on crowd lexicography for Oxford University Press. Her first involvement with the government was as a consultant for the Executive Yuan's "vTaiwan" project from 2014-2015, an online policy discussion platform. She has also been working on g0v community, an online Taiwanese initiative that "pushes information transparency, focusing on developing information platforms and tools for the citizens to participate in society. In 2015 she worked as member of the K-12 National Curriculum Development Committee under the National Academy for Education Research, where she led Taiwan's first e-Rulemaking project.

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