Officials belonging to Taiwan’s ministry
of economic affairs this week said they expect up to 50,000 local
companies to be conducting commercial transactions on the Internet by
the end of 2001, by which time the island’s annual e-commerce turnover
is projected to exceed NT$500 billion (US$15.76 billion).
The officials were reporting on the progress of the government’s
four-year plan, begun in 1998, which aims to see the island’s most
important companies doing business online by the end of 2001.
According to the Department of Commerce, a division of the economics
affairs ministry, 15,494 local firms have so far set up e-commerce
systems. A further 17,000 enterprises are slated to go online by the end
of next year, boosting annual e-commerce turnover to around NT$ 135
billion (US$ 4.25 billion).
The officials also confirmed that a Taiwanese delegation headed by vice
economics minister Yin Chi-ming would be attending the third
Asia-Pacific Information Technology Summit in San Francisco on Nov.
17 to 19. The summit’s theme will be “Internet and e-commerce.”