Nearly a Thousand Internet Industry Elites Gather at APRICOT 2003

for the Latest Internet Technologies and Business Opportunities

February 25, 2003
Taipei, Taiwan

Today, the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Conference on Operational Technologies (APRICOT) 2003 press conference was held at the Taipei International Convention Center. The hosts of the conference this year, included Tsai Ching-Yen, NICI coordinator and Minister of State for the Executive Yuan; Jian Ren-De, Chief of The directorate General of Telecommunications; Tseng Shian-Shyong, the president of Taiwan Network Information Center; and Dr. Abhisak Chuya, the chairman of APRICOT 2003. Together they explained the motives and goals of holding the event. Minister Tsai emphasized, ¡§Our government is doing its best to promote the development of the IT industry. The NICI of the Executive Yuan is aggressively working on Internet infrastructure, e-Government, e-business, eTaiwan and the like. Policies all depend on the support of information and communication technologies and the installation of infrastructure in the nation. Through hosting major international conferences, such as APRICOT, we can bring in the latest Internet technologies and concepts, enhance the competitiveness of our Internet industry and absorb the Internet experience of other countries as reference for the development of our Internet industry.¡¨

The pre-conference workshop from February 19 to February 23 aimed at Internet technologies and the principal meeting of this conference is being held from February 24 to February 28. According to conference statistics, almost a thousand Internet technicians and experts from more than forty countries have attended the workshop. As was announced by the hosts, there have been five features at the conference this year: 1) The number of attendees and sponsors has reached an all time high, which shows the success of the conference this year.; 2) The latest technologies, such as IPv6, Internet security and convergence of Internet and communication technologies, have been introduced into Taiwan via intense keynote speeches and satellite meetings.; 3) The honourable speakers who were invited are all executives of major global Internet organizations and opinion leaders from industry and academia. Their speeches at the conference has brought innovative ideas and inspiration to Internet development in Taiwan.; 4. This year, the conference has cooperated intensely with the Internet industry and acquired record-breaking sponsorship from it. Under the conference arrangements, the sponsors have set up ¡§demo labs¡¨ to showcase and exchange the latest Internet communication technologies. 5) The conference has provided an international technologies exchange platform for Internet industry managers and technicians in Taiwan. These managers and technicians have used this rare opportunity to interact directly with the elites from international Internet industry and absorb the latest concepts and technologies.

The five keynote speakers who were invited by the hosting organizations are: Stan Shih, president of Acer group; Hsiang-Tsung Kung, member of Academia Sinica; Fred Baker, chairman of Internet Society (ISOC); Stuart Lynn, chairman of Internet Corporation for Assigned and Numbers (ICANN); and Kato Masanobu, Pan-Asia president of ICANN. They will give speeches on the innovative concept of the Internet on the mornings of February 26 and February 27. These speeches are open to the public so anyone interested is welcome to join free of charge.

Faced with major the convergence of the Internet and communication technologies trend, Jian Ren-De, chief of The directorate General of Telecommunications, explained, ¡¨The vendors who acquired the 3G license last year will start to provide service in 2003. Looking forward to the future of communication technologies, we see that the integration of the Internet and communication has become an inevitable trend, but there are still many obstacles to overcome in terms of technology integration and resource application. If Taiwan can fully use existing leverage to help domestic players keep abreast of the latest R&D and market applications through international exchange and cooperation, it is foreseeable that the competitiveness of Taiwan¡¦s Internet industry can be improved.¡¨

W.S. Chen, executive of Taiwan Internet Information Center and a major host of this summit, expressed, ¡¨On the development of the Internet industry and the diversification of e-business applications, Taiwan must move faster! By holding APRICOT 2003 here in Taiwan, we hope to urge Internet vendors or even common technology enterprises to focus more on the issue of Internet resource application in the global sense in addition to preparing better for the next global technology race!¡¨

For those who are interested in participating in this conference or would like to know more about the conference agenda and content, please visit ¡]www.apricot2003.net¡^ or email¡]info@apricot2003.net¡^us.

Background Information for APRICOT 2003

n Supervising Units: NICI, the Executive Yuan, Taiwan¡¦s Ministry of Transportation and Communications

n Hosts: NICI IPv6, the Executive Yuan, The directorate General of Telecommunications, TWNIC

n Associate Organizers: National Center for High Performance Computing, Research Development and Evaluation Commission Executive Yuan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Board of Foreign Trade Ministry of Economic, Taipei City Government, Computer Center, Ministry of Education

n Sponsors: Tourism Bureau, Ministry of Transportation and communications, Taipei City Government, Chunghwa Telecom Co.,Ltd., Taiwan Fixed Network, Taiwan Cellular Corp, TransAsia Telecommunications, FarEasTone, APNIC, Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, Computer & Communications Research Labs, Eastern Broadband Telecom, Microsoft Taiwan, So-NET, SPIRENT COMMUNICATIONS, Global Sun Tech, Netpia, 6 WIND, MoBiTai, MATSUSHITA DENKO SALES TAIWAN, Agilent Technologies Taiwan, Motorola Taiwan, VeriSign, Force10 Network, Ericsson Taiwan, Spark, France Telecom, KG Telecom, Digital United Inc., TTN, Nortel Networks, National Technology Development Program, Hauman, Askey, ACER, Hyper Net.

n Media Sponsors¡GTaipei Computer Association, DigiTimes, TechVentage, Institute for Information Industry, Infopro Weekly, iThome, Yahoo Kimo

n Secretariat: General Innovation Service

News contacts

Taiwan Network Information Center	Liping, Chi	02-23411313 ext. 701	liping@twnic.net.tw
	Joanna, Zuo	02-23411313 ext. 700	joanna@twnic.net.tw
Ogilvy	Lina, Hung	02-37251224	Linaln.hung@ogilvy.com
	Tina, Shih	02-37251228	Tinatc.shih@ogilvy.com
	Peko, Wan	02-37251218	Pekoyt.wan@ogilvy.com