In remarks Thursday following a presentation by the National Development Council (NDC) on planning for smart government, Premier Lai Ching-te said that accelerating the digital transformation of government is an important policy for Taiwan to match developments within the international community. The NDC's plan calls for cooperation between the public and private sectors to use emerging technologies like artificial intelligence to optimize policy decisions and build a smart government for a new era. The premier said that this model will yield more innovative and convenient services and enable greater administrative transparency.
A digital identification card, called New eID, will serve as the foundation for all efforts to build a smart government, said Premier Lai. He directed the Ministry of the Interior to proceed with planning for a complete replacement of current national ID cards, with a target date to begin work by 2020.
At the heart of developing innovative new smart government services lies data, the premier said. Accordingly, all ministries and agencies should initiate plans for the interministerial sharing and use of government data as a step toward making these resources more useful. Premier Lai instructed that priority resources be allocated for concrete improvements such as moving the administration of government services online. Agencies were also charged with formulating action plans to rework administrative procedures for the provision of cross-disciplinary services in line with public demand.
The NDC said that following the Executive Yuan's approval of the smart government project, the council will develop an action plan encompassing the overall initiative. Among the advances to be made by 2020 are the rollout of the New eID, comprehensive smart government services with simplified procedures and document-free payment processing, online access to 80 percent of public services applications, and the introduction of e-voting (not internet-enabled) for national referendums.