This September Taipei City will take another step forward by partnering with international smart cities. The Mayor of Taipei, Lung-Bin Hau, will sign a Letter of Intent with Ms. Brenda Halloran, Mayor of the City of Waterloo, Canada. Through this partnership, Taipei will be linked with Europe and North America in developing smart cities.

The signing will take place during the fifth United Cities and Local Governments Asia-Pacific (UCLG ASPAC) Congress, from 3 to 6 September. Taipei City has already signed a Letter of Intent with Eindhoven, and this, together with the new agreement with the City of Waterloo, will lead to the formation of a Global Triangle of Intelligent Communities and further strengthen cooperation in establishing smart cities.

On 10 June 2013 the cities of Waterloo and Eindhoven became the first two signatories to the Global Triangle of Intelligent Communities. On 20 November 2013 the Mayor of Eindhoven, Rob van Gijzel, paid a visit to Taipei and signed a Letter of Intent with Taipei City. The signing of the Letter between the City of Waterloo and Taipei City completes this partnership, making possible collaboration across Asia, Europe and North America. Taipei City, the City of Waterloo and Eindhoven will pursue exchanges in industrial development, technological research and development, design, the labour market and student exchange programmes.

On 4 September Mayor Brenda Halloran will also give a presentation on “The Development and Application of the Smart City”. Also in attendance will be Yasutomo Suzuki, Mayor of Hamamatsu; Gunso Kim, Assistant Mayor for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer, Seoul Metropolitan Government; Chia-Sheng Chang, Chairman of Easy Card Corporation; Lin Chien-Yuan, Professor of Urban Planning at the Graduate Institute of Planning & Building, National Taiwan University; and Wu Shiouh-Guang, Chairman of CDIB & Partners Investment Holding Corp. In the first plenary session of the second day, speakers will exchange views on the challenges of and responses to urban development in the building of safer, friendlier, more convenient and more livable cities which can better cater to human needs.