Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi scores high 80%

May 20, 2008, Kuala Lumpur – Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi, scored a high 80% on his Chinese spoken language test at the Taiwan booth after the official opening of WCIT 2008 this morning.

The Prime Minister was given a crash course in using a Chinese-Speaking Self-Learning software program installed on a personal computer that recognizes voice and pronunciation of Chinese words, which it then repeated The software program, developed by Institute for Information Industry of Taiwan, helps people learn the Mandarin dialect by scoring accuracy of pronunciation and tone.

This easily-installed software provides people with limited time but who want to learn Chinese with an option that they can use on a desktop PC at the office or at home, or on a notebook computer while on the road.The prototype, available at the Taiwan booth at Exhibition Hall 1 at WCIT 2008 this week for visitors to see how they fare with their pronunciation and tone, will be commercialized by e-Learning vendors in Taiwan.

The software has already been used with Taiwanese companies, language institutes in Vietnam, and IT companies in Brazil. People using this software are able to speak basic Chinese for conversation and general communication in one and a half months. Visitors to the Taiwan booth will be given a trial CD.

Taiwan booth drums up excitement in IT innovation Dr Johnsee Lee (李鍾熙), President of Industrial Technology Research Institute, who is the head of the Taiwan delegation at WCIT 2008, said that “ITRI is here to showcase IT innovation from Taiwan, which has evolved from a manufacturing base to a high-tech digital base.

For example, the Pocket Channel allows people to become instant broadcasters with their web-enabled mobile devices, in which they can use this unique one-to-many mobile streaming technology.” The Taiwan booth was officially opened with a Wushu drum ceremony. Among the guests were the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office Representative in Malaysia, Mr. Victor Tseng; World Information Technology and Services Alliance Chairman George Newstrom; Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organization President Ashank Desai; and PIKOM Chairman David Wong. Dr Lee also announced a joint challenge by ITRI and satellite-based organizations in Europe that will encourage people to develop technology innovations for the Galileo satellite.

ITRI, together with organizations from Germany, United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands and France, will award a prize of 50,000 Euros to the winning program, which will be evaluated based on originality (50%), feasibility (25%) and market potential (25%). Interested parties can find more information at www.galileo-masters.com.The Taiwan booth is located in Exhibition Hall 1, #108.

馬國首相首次以軟體學習中文分數 飆高到八十分
WCIT台灣館「智慧生活」技術應用艷驚全場



台灣於世界資訊科技大會中盛大展出台灣消費電子新技術，吸引所有與會者的注意。開幕儀式中大會主辦單位代表與本次台灣團團長-工研院李鍾熙院長（右三）共同邀請與會之精英來台灣體驗前瞻的「智慧生活」。由左至右：軟體協會前理事長殷允中、軟體協會劉瑞隆理事長、馬來西亞電腦工會主席Mr. David Wong、台灣駐馬來西亞曾慶源大使、團長暨工研院李鍾熙院長、世界資訊科技暨服務聯盟主席Mr. George C. Newstrom、亞太電腦公會理事長Mr. Ashank DesaiPT、世界資訊科技暨服務聯盟下屆主席Dan E Khoo、世界資訊科技暨服務聯盟秘書長Jim Posiant

第16屆世界資訊科技大會（World Congress on Information Technology, WCIT）於5月19~21日於馬來西亞吉隆坡會議中心舉行，吸引全球80多國三千多人與會。馬來西亞首相拿督斯里阿都拉特別親臨台灣館體驗台灣先進的「智慧生活」高科技應用，並由台灣團團長工研院院長李鍾熙博士致贈故宮畫作。

台灣團團長暨工研院院長(左)致贈馬來西亞首相拿督斯里阿都（右）故宮金箔花開富貴畫。

馬來西亞首相拿督斯里阿都拉於大會開幕當天特別親臨台灣館體驗全球第一套的華語文口說訓練系統。這是將電腦口說會話服務融入至真人老師直接訓練模式的口說會話訓練系統，學習者可以電腦自學或真人遠距教學方式，學會中文。阿都拉首相當場試用，由於教學簡易，阿都拉首相興致高昂的馬上開始練習，第一次發音時，電腦給分並不高，經過第二次練習，分數馬上飆高至80分，阿都拉首相也當場學了一句中文-「你好」。馬總統特別錄影向WCIT大會的與會者及世界資訊科技暨服務聯盟的60多個會員國問候，歡迎他們來台，同時宣揚我國資訊科技的實力。馬總統在錄影中指出：「台灣在全球IT產業中扮演著重要的角色，並為各國IT產業之策略合作夥伴之一，歡迎各國與會者親來台灣體驗台灣之美及台灣的「智慧生活」。世界資訊科技暨服務聯盟主席Mr. George C. Newstrom特別在會員大會恭賀馬英九先生當選中華民國總統，並稱馬總統為WCIT之友。

台灣館同步於今天舉行盛大的開幕儀式,並邀請大會主辦單位世界資訊科技暨服務聯盟主席Mr. George C. Newstrom等蒞臨台灣館共同歡迎邀請與會之精英來台灣體驗前瞻的「智慧生活」。工研院院長暨台灣團團長李鍾熙博士致詞指出「在全球化的趨勢生活形態的改變下，IT的科技發展越來越向消費者需求靠攏，唯有將生活應用需求面與網路與通訊科技完美整合，才能開發出符合人性需求的產品進而領導世界潮流。本次台灣館的設計即以生活應用情境來展示，滿足消費者安全、分享、自我實現等需求。諸如：能隨時隨地傳遞天倫之樂的口袋頻道、家庭安全守護者的訊息設計、全球第一個多功能的手機SIM卡、華語文口說訓練系統等」。

第16屆世界資訊科技大會（World Congress on Information Technology, WCIT）於5月19~21日於馬來西亞吉隆坡會議中心舉行，吸引全球80多國三千多人與會。WCIT由世界資訊科技暨服務聯盟主辦，每二年舉行全球資訊科技與通訊高峰會議。台灣曾於公元2000年主辦，台北市政府為主要之政府贊助單位，當年的馬市長也是大會的Keynote Speaker；2002年 WCIT在澳洲舉辦時，台北市獲頒“IT Excellence Award”，馬市長也親至澳洲受獎。