(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
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| Taiwan to Promote Internet Among Households, Schools
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October 28, 1998 (TAIPEI) -- In a bid to boost the number of Internet
users, Taiwan's government has allocated an additional NT$7.5 billion
(US$229 million) to the FY1999 budget to promote the Internet among
households and schools.
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Officials with the Executive Yuan's National Information Infrastructure
(NII) promotion team said that most of the funds will be channeled to
elementary and secondary schools for computer procurement.
The government allocated a total of NT$58.6 billion in funds for the
NII program in fiscal years 1998-2001. Originally, only NT$21 billion
of this had been earmarked for fiscal 1999.
The additional NT$7.5 billion will be allocated to four projects, NII
officials said. About NT$6.47 billion will be distributed to elementary,
junior high and senior high schools, while NT$890 million will be used
for the automation of government agencies.
The plans to set up a global Chinese-language network education center,
and a hygiene/medicare infrastructure will each receive funding worth
NT$110 million.
The Executive Yuan hopes to equip all junior high schools here with access
to the Internet by June 1999. More than 80,000 elementary and secondary
school teachers are enrolled in information education training programs.
To cope with the expected demand for more computer education teachers,
the government plans to seek support from private-sector educators.
As of August, 2.3 million households in Taiwan were linked to the Internet.
By September 1999, the number is likely to reach the government's target
of 3 million.
(Commercial Times, Taiwan)
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