Okay.

We have some as well.

Well, thank you for taking the time. This was great, and we appreciate your team inviting us to come and meet with you.

Lovely. Thank you.

Another opportunity in November is Matt and his team are working on a program that ICF will be doing in Barcelona for the Intelligent Community of the Year program. So, if you’re traveling or willing to make the trip, we might invite you to come to Barcelona at that time.

We’d love to do that.

Now, we’re working obviously with your team from ITRI and from ICF Taiwan, but if there are others that you would like us to work with as well, we can do that.

Yeah, and having people from different parts of the world come and evaluating the cities but also the country at large, you know. Those are very important points of view that can be put out there by third parties, again. And that’s one of the things that we are capable ...

Yeah, we have already worked with your team on some podcasts and some other kinds of promotional activities. And, of course, we do videos and promote through conferences and what not, but there are many other areas to explore. You know, promoting the work that you do on a n ...

We have a number of ideas that we can explore. I’m happy to go into any depth, but in general, it sounds like you’re amenable to that approach.

So, these are the kinds of ideas we’d like to explore more of and happy to work with you and your representatives in making those things happen.

For instance, one of the things that we’ve recently accomplished is to create intelligence states. So, in Ohio, we’ve created an Intelligent Ohio, not just a municipality opportunity, but a statewide. There’s an opportunity to explore how to promote and develop Intelligent Taiwan as an example or a best practice ...

And so, what we would like to do is engage even more. Now, we haven’t done that at the central government level or the federal government level here in Taiwan. And this is really our first opportunity to have this conversation. It would be great to do more. Not just ...

What we’d like to do, and we’ve been here since 2004. 16 cities have made it. 4 of them were recognized as the top cities in the world. Taichung and New Taipei City, Taipei and Taoyuan. And of course, we’re taking their stories and telling the world about it. One ...

One of the things that I think is important for us to impart with you, and of course, Matt will join me in this, is that we tell stories around the world about municipalities. But it’s really about the people. So, whether it’s a municipality or it’s a country, it’s ...

And this is my son, Michael. He had to rush back to do something but um, thank you for doing that. Suvi?

That’s very interesting. And Matt, Suvi, do you have some specific questions?

I’ll just let you take my stuff…

And they’re not being threatened. And sometimes it’s easier just to say forget it.

Yeah, I was going to ask about the affordability of that because some of the – I mean, it’s great to have protection. But some of these companies, they’re pretty small.

Wow, that sounds very interesting. And what about cyber security? How are you dealing with that?

So, what’s happening with issues around privacy? Do you have a design for… with privacy in mind program or…?

Right. You already have a fairly sophisticated infrastructure. So, now you’re building much more sophisticated elements on top of that.

What’s your vision for how you’re going to communicate and make lives better at the local level?

Yeah. So, we are constantly traveling and learning about what countries are doing and this is one of our few opportunities to meet someone like yourself and your division to talk about the importance of a government-level to the individual in a municipality, because most of the time we’re connecting ...

And so, we advocated it but it wasn’t until Covid that people started to realize exactly what people like Suvi was talking about.

But one thing, years ago, I read an article about this lady here, Suvi Linden - about the human rights of people to have access to the internet. And it was Suvi whose organization put that forward. And that was very important for me to understand how important the internet ...

We’re seeing that in several countries where you know the smart city ideas are actually being executed. I mean look at what’s going on in the United States. For many years people have expected these things, but it wasn’t until Covid that people realized how important it was.

Budgets are always a challenge but very important, because you can have all the vision that you want but you have to have the ability to execute and you have the commitment by government to see it through.

Yes, please.

So, thank you very much for inviting us. We would love to talk a little bit about our programs, and we’d love to hear from you about your vision and the programs that you’re working on with some of your colleagues.

My son is with me, but he had to go back to the hotel for a moment. Then he’ll be back momentarily.

Matt Owen is executive director of the Intelligent Community Forum. Formerly from the United States, but now lives in the Netherlands. And his wife is expecting. So, he may have to dart out of here any minute, right?

Yeah. And she’s now in Oulu, Finland, but was minister at the time in Helsinki.

Yeah. So, Suvi Linden is from Finland, and she was, as you are….

Great. I’ll introduce you to some of our colleagues if you have a moment.

So, it’s pretty significant.

I’ve visited many, many times over the years. The first time I came here was 2004, so I’ve been coming pretty much yearly if not many times a year. Because we’ve had 16 cities that we’ve worked with over the years in Taiwan.