The Executive Yuan will be hosting a meeting Thursday for competent authorities, scholars, experts and online groups to exchange views on transforming Taiwan into a hub for online companies.
Focusing on "close corporations" and "taxation of online transactions," the meeting is being held to explore the new legal relationships that arise from virtual world developments and technological advances. Broadcast live on the LIVEhouse.in video platform, the meeting will also discuss messages left by the general public through the legal discussion platform vTaiwan.tw.
In a fast-changing world, the timeframe required for formulating a policy must be shortened, the Executive Yuan said. And the biggest challenge facing the government is how to rapidly integrate different opinions, put them up for rational discussion and reach consensus accordingly.
As such, in December last year the Executive Yuan approved a plan to amend regulations governing development of the virtual world. To improve the quality of policymaking, the Executive Yuan has also tapped the vTaiwan.tw platform established by g0v.tw—a private-sector online community—in the hopes of reaching societal consensus before laws and policies are crafted.
Under the plan, regulations governing the virtual world will be adjusted to attain three goals: building Taiwan into a hub for online companies; forging a vision for Taiwan's digital life; and creating a secure and safe e-commerce environment.
The vTaiwan.tw site has already opened three topics to public discussion: close corporations, crowdfunding, and taxation of online transactions. Six more topics are being added in March, including remote education, telecommuting, remote health care, open government data, consumer protection and personal information protection.
vTaiwan.tw—created and operated by members of g0v—is the first discussion forum built by a social networking community to be used by the Executive Yuan. Competent authorities endeavor to answer questions posted on the forum within seven days. Following the first stage of discussion, g0v editors will invite participants most active in the discussions to meet up in person for the second stage, where they can propose law and policy ideas to government agencies and work toward a consensus.
Tomorrow's meeting will be broadcast live at LIVEhouse.in (https://livehouse.ie) from 7:00 p.m. to 9:10 p.m.