Taipei, July 20 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) called Friday for increased exchanges with Estonia in digital innovation at a time when Taiwan is moving toward building a digital society.

"Taiwan shares the same goals as Estonia in terms of building a service-oriented digital government and open data governance, and I look forward to having more exchanges with Estonia in this field," Tsai said when meeting a group of foreign guests attending the Digital Innovation Forum 2018 being held July 19-20 in Taipei.

The forum was hosted by Papau New Guinea and Taiwan and supported by the APEC Business Advisory Council.

She thanked former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves for coming to Taiwan to share his experience in promoting digital governance in the Baltic state through several initiatives, including those focused on paperless government and information security.

Tsai hailed Estonia as the most advanced digital society in the world and a role model for countries in the Asia-Pacific region to learn from.

Over the past two years, Taiwan has been moving toward the goal of turning the country into a digital society and intelligent island, hoping to provide people with a smart living environment and create a stable environment for industrial innovation, she said.

In August, Taichung will host an exhibition and forum on smart cities, which is expected to draw buyers from 45 countries, she noted.

Taiwan has been keen to sponsor such activities to show the rest of the world its hope of playing a leadership role in the digital arena and its resolve to meet new challenges through exchanges with other countries, Tsai said.

(By Lu Hsin-hui and Flor Wang)
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