The Taichung City Government's efforts in promoting “Digital Taichung” have paid off, receiving two national awards today (29th). The city earned its first “ODF Promotion Model Award” from the Ministry of Digital Affairs, becoming the only winning local government among the six major cities. Simultaneously, the Digital Governance Bureau won the “2024 Cloud and IoT Innovation Award - Excellence in Application” from the Taiwan Cloud Computing & IoT Association for its “Taichung City Open Geospatial Data and Application Sustainable Ecosystem.” Deputy Director Hui-Min Huang and Acting Section Chief Yuan-Hsi Liao of the Systems Section represented the bureau at the award ceremony, demonstrating Taichung's outstanding achievements in open geospatial data applications and government digital document preservation and circulation.

Digital Bureau Director Gu-Long Lin noted that transparent governance is Mayor Shiu-Yen Lu 's administrative philosophy. Through its data opening platform, the Digital Bureau is committed to making Taichung City Government's data and geospatial information available to society and academic research. Their efforts have been widely recognized, winning the “Gold Quality Award” and “Popularity Award” in the Executive Yuan's 2023 Open Data Assessment. In 2024, they received the Ministry of Interior's TGOS Distribution Service Award again. This time, Taichung City stood out among all local governments nationwide by winning the Ministry of Digital Affairs' “ODF Promotion Model Award,” making it the only recipient among the six major cities.

Director Lin explained that to encourage government agencies to use the Open Document Format (ODF), the central government established the "ODF Promotion Model Award" to motivate local governments to provide services using ODF documents. Taichung City Government aligns with the international "digital equality" trend by following the central government's promotion of standard document formats. They are committed to using the ODF format for internal official and public-facing electronic documents to facilitate document circulation and long-term preservation, strengthen data standardization and openness, and implement citizens' digital sovereignty.

Director Lin also mentioned that the Taichung City Government's receipt of the 2024 Cloud and IoT Innovation Award marks the first time a local government information agency has won since the award's establishment in 2016. The Digital Bureau continues integrating geospatial data from various city government departments, building the Taichung Geospatial Cloud. This platform combines satellite imagery, Google Maps, and geospatial data from the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Agriculture, effectively improving the efficiency of municipal data integration and utilization while promoting data consistency. They have actively developed geographic information systems and implemented various innovative applications, such as the benefit map for the Red Bull Showrun Taichung International Racing Exhibition during the Covid-19, mask availability maps, and confirmed case footprint maps for citizens.

Deputy Director Huang added that Taichung's efforts in open geospatial data applications and digital document standardization affirm past achievements and lay the foundation for future digital transformation. The city government will continue strengthening geospatial data openness, digital resource sharing, and reuse and promote cross-domain cooperation and integration with digital technology, steadily advancing toward becoming an innovative and sustainable city.