Taiwan’s Minister Hsu Visits CSU to Confer about Smart City

Minister Michael Hsu, Taiwan’s Representative to the Philippines, visited CSU on August 9, 2019.  Accompanied by Butuan City Administrator, Mr. Rey Desiata, the Taiwanese delegation came to CSU to about refashioning Butuan into a Smart and Sustainable City.

The initial discussion focused on two areas: Smart Medicare and Smart Government.  In his speech, Minister Hsu mentioned that promoting the concept of smart city requires patience because it takes time to transform a city into a smart sustainable city.  He cited the transformation of two major cities in Taiwan, Taipei and Kaoshiung. These cities became smart cities due to brilliant ideas and patience in the application of “Internet of Things”.

The Caraga State University (CSU) and the City Government of Butuan (CGB) envision to remake Butuan into a Smart City. Riding on Butuan’s desire to become a sustainable and highly developed metropolis capitalizing on its brand ‘Butuan On’; the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCIEERD) identified Butuan City as a pilot city together with the cities of Cauayan in Isabela and Iloilo in Iloilo Province for its program on Convergence of Philippine Technologies for Smarter City Development.

PCIEERD’s selection is based on the city’s rapid economic and industrial growth, as well as the local government’s enthusiasm and support in ushering innovation.  With these criteria, the development of smarter cities in said sites has great potential. Eventually, these pilot cities will become a good model to other cities, according to PCIEERD.

The outputs of the PCIEERD-funded initiatives at CSU such as GeoSAFER-Agusan, TechnoHub (better known as Navigatu), and nanoparticles development for health and industry among others will be featured in the Smart City development.

An initial meeting among representatives from CSU, the City Government of Butuan and DOST-PCIEERD was held on July 25, 2019.  The aim is to identify areas of convergence and setting the directions towards achieving the targets of refashioning Butuan into a Smart City by developing the Smart City Ecosystem Framework.  More talks and discussions between CSU and the local government representatives about Butuan to become a Smart City are expected in the coming days. RPV/pico