Taiwan and Japan are hoping to build closer links in smart city development, experts announced at a summit in Taipei last week.

In a move to deepen exchanges between Taiwan and Japan and increase future business opportunities in smart cities, the 2023 Taiwan-Japan Smart City Exchange Summit was co-organised by Vpon, iKala, NextDrive and New Economy Ventures (NEV).

At the event, participants shared their knowledge and experience on how to use data technology to reimagine transportation, tourism, business and governance while building and managing smart cities in Taiwan. The Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau shared local success cases, with the goal of facilitating future planning for the joint development of smart cities and opening up further collaborative opportunities between Taiwan and Japan.

Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau chairman Hiroshi Mizohata welcomed the potential for tie-ups between companies in Taiwan and Japan that enhance cooperation in data applications.

Representatives from a host of Taiwan government agencies including the Taipei government’s Department of Information & Tourism, New Taipei City government’s Tourism & Travel Department, Taoyuan government’s Taoyuan First Stop in Taiwan, Pingtung county government’s Transportation & Tourism Division, and Taichung government’s Research, Development & Evaluation Commission also shared their cases involving the application of big data in the development of smart cities, as well as ideas for smart city sustainability, smart infrastructure construction and urban digital transformation.

The four co-organisers shared their own opportunities on smart city development. Among them Vpon founder Victor Wu discussed the impact of a big data ecosystem with the mission and task of gathering together multiple teams for cross-border development. He talked about his firm’s experience in creating more complete offerings by collaborating with other Taiwanese companies to enter the Japanese market as the driver of data technology within the context of Taiwan-Japan exchanges.

Sega Cheng, iKala CEO, elaborated on trend insights based on tracking the efforts undertaken by online celebrities involved in cross-border businesses and how its key opinion leader radar can be applied to cross-border market services. NextDrive CEO Jeryuan Yan, NEV general partner Jeff Wen and National Chung Cheng University dean of information technology Pao-Ann Hsiung explored the future of data governance sustainability, the resilience of data technologies, and the use of energy and AI in processing data.

In addition to being co-organisers of the summit, Vpon and iKala also set up joint stands at the summit, where they demonstrated application examples on helping the governments of Taiwan and Japan develop smart cities through big data and technology tools.

Visitors gained insight into the latest technologies trending in the worlds of cross-border intelligence, data technology and smart cities, as well as learning about what the future portends for smart cities jointly developed by Taiwanese firms and members of the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association as a result of advances being made in cross-border cooperation and innovation.