Taiwan opens tech start-up pavilion at CES

Los Angeles, Jan. 7 (CNA) A pavilion organized by a tech start-up incubator created by Taiwan's National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) opened on Wednesday, the first day of the four-day Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Los Angeles.

The pavilion comprised 72 Taiwanese start-ups from the Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA), which was initiated in 2018 by the NSTC.

The aim is for the TTA to demonstrate their innovations at the CES, one of the largest technology exhibitions in the world.

Jannene Remondino, a senior supervisor of the CES, and Sudeepto Roy, vice president of U.S.-based smartphone IC designer Qualcomm Inc., attended the opening ceremony.

Also present were representatives of the IFA, a consumer electronics show in Berlin; risingSUD, an investment agency in France; the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO); and myGlobalVillage Switzerland, a Swiss intelligence specialist.

It was the eighth year for the TTA to send a delegation to the CES to allow Taiwanese start-ups to compete for market attention with their counterparts from South Korea, Japan, Sweden and Italy.

TTA was invited by the NSTC to demonstrate their technologies at the pavilion.

According to the NSTC, start-ups accounted for almost one third of the total exhibitors at the CES.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Andrea T. J. Hsu (許增如), head of the NSTC's Department of Academia Industry Collaboration and Science Park Affairs, who led the TTA delegation to the CES, said the 72 firms covered five sectors: artificial intelligence, digital health, smart cities, sustainability, vehicle tech and advanced mobility.

The achievements showcased by these Taiwanese firms are expected to demonstrate the country's diversified innovation ecosystem, Hsu said.

She added that the Taiwanese participants all have grown based on their AI technologies and are able to let the world know how far they have developed AI applications.

Hsu said Taiwan has become one of the most reliable partners in AI development and the country has set its sights on working with other nations to increase innovations led by AI.

She said the presence of the TTA's firms at the CES is expected to help them seize business opportunities in the global market.

In Taipei, the NSTC said in a statement that representatives of more than 30 TTA firms in the pavilion are scheduled to launch roadshows in the Silicon Valley on Jan. 14 after the CES ends, to meet with investors and enterprises in the U.S. tech base to lure talent and funds to Taiwan.