APEC organization adopts VIA's PC solution

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on May 4, 2006. It reports that the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation's Digital Opportunity Center recently decided to adopt the personal-computer solutions provided by Taiwan's VIA Technologies, including microprocessors in its sub-US$500 PCs. The Digital Opportunity Center plans to promote low-priced PCs in rising economies such as China and India, in hope of shortening the digital divide between the developed and developing APEC members.

VIA's solutions, including microprocessors, chipsets and motherboards, will go into the Digital Opportunity Center's computers that are retailed between US$300 and US$500. The company is the first supplier to join APEC's Digital Opportunity Center plan.

Taiwan advocated the establishment of the Digital Opportunity Center at the 11th APEC ministerial meeting in Bangkok in 2003, in order to help solve the digital-divide problem. The center's secretariat is Taiwan's government-backed International Cooperation and Development Fund, whose chairman is concurrently the nation's Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The top priority job of the Digital Opportunity Center in 2006 is to establish an information and communication technology alliance, which will enable Taiwan's information and communication products to meet the service demands of the center's member states. This will also pave the way for Taiwan's information and communication industry into these countries.

At present, 85 percent of the world's people do not have computers. It is hoped that the Digital Opportunity Center's low-priced computer program may help create another one billion computer population.