Taiwan's digital economy has grown by leaps and bounds in 2024 with more than NT$1 trillion (approx. US$33.3 billion) in output value for the year, reaching the milestone earlier than scheduled, according to Digital Affairs Minister Yen-nung Huang at a press conference on June 3. In addition, the Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) will continue to pursue its three main policies: enhancing digital resilience, developing the digital economy, and strengthening anti-fraud measures.
Huang noted that Taiwan's cybersecurity industry is close to reaching NT$100 billion in output value as the digital economy rapidly develops. Furthermore, with TSMC and other leading hardware makers expanding production in the US, Japan, and Germany, their Taiwan-based IT service providers are also taking their services abroad, allowing them to explore opportunities in the international market beyond their original Taiwanese clients.
With cybersecurity companies also making significant inroads overseas, Huang expressed optimism regarding the growth potential of Taiwanese companies in the digital economy.
According to data from MODA, the computer and IT service industries reached NT$610.4 billion in revenue in 2024, marking a steady growth trajectory that saw a 5.74% improvement from the previous year, and a 30.3% rise compared to 2021. Since MODA includes e-commerce platforms (including Momo, PChome, and Shopee) and other internet mail-order businesses in its digital economy figures, the additional NT$401.6 billion in 2024 means that the total output of the digital economy for the year reached NT$1.12 trillion.
As Taiwan develops its digital economy, Huang stressed that MODA will center on five key aspects: computing power pools, data, talent, marketing, and funding. MODA's efforts in the past year include establishing an AI computing pool with 40 GPUs to assist IT service providers in developing and training AI models, training 4,800 AI professionals, and releasing more than 50,000 government datasets for AI training, allowing the cybersecurity industry to surpass NT$81.7 billion in output value.
Furthermore, MODA will build a Taiwan Sovereign AI Training Corpus that prioritizes high-quality Chinese-language datasets from government agencies, foster new talent for AI applications, assist industry partners in training and developing AI applications, extend the SEMI E187 cybersecurity standards in fab equipment to other digital industries, strengthen international collaboration, and expand Taiwan's digital partnership networks, according to Huang.
MODA will continue to strengthen the resilience of Taiwan's digital infrastructure and accelerate the development of its digital economy, with a particular focus on AI and industrial cybersecurity applications, while also collaborating with the private sector in combatting digital fraud.
Article edited by Jack Wu
