2017年05月號 領航者的話
Chairman Douglas Hsu’s Address on the 28th Anniversary of Yuan Ze University
Far Eastern Group Chairman / Douglas Hsu
Reflecting on 28 years ago when Yuan Ze University was established, Dr. Wang Kuo-ming served as the first President. I can still remember vividly till this day. Soon 28 years have passed, while I am delighted to see the growth of Yuan Ze, hope that through these Fireside Chats, we may share some major trends in the world and that you may have a clear outlook about the future.
The aging world, accelerating technological advancements, urbanization and the greater global connectedness are the four main disrupting. Among which, I can relate more deeply with global connectedness and technological advancements. In the era of globalization, I can watch the live broadcast of joint press conference at the White House of the U.S. President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel via real time video transmission, and receive the latest update in the United States, not through reading text to imagine their meeting scene, that is the power of global connectedness.
The upside of globalization is to receive endless new stimulus and information. For cross-border enterprise, it is vital to seize real time information. Last week, I was attending American Enterprise Institute (AEI) World Forum in the United States, with the participation of 200 plus world elites including many U. S. cabinet members. According to their views in terms of international trade, discussions with the U. S. will emphasize more on trade balance and safeguard the American interest. In other words, President Trump will begin honoring his “America First” commitment during his election campaign as well as the construction of the high walls between the U.S. and Mexican borders. Furthermore, Trump also plans to increase import tariff. Yet, this will push up consumer price in the United States, and might consequently affect people’s spending power. If the market tightens up, the industry must rethink about the possibility of relocating elsewhere. In contrast, Trump wants to attract more enterprises to invest in U. S. Despite having the world’s cheapest energy resources, the U. S. still imposes the most strict environment policies which will bring extra burden for business operations.
The above is my recent observation of the international landscape, hope my views will be able to help you realize the dynamic global affairs. The world will become more and more interconnected with accelerating speed. In the era of global connectedness, changes around the world will affect enterprise thinking as well as the academic institution. The world is huge, Taiwan’s impact is relatively small. We should broaden our horizon, vision and strategy to upscale Taiwan. Yuan Ze is Taiwan’s best private university. Our faculty and students are the brightest, supported by the strong board. We must follow world trend, embrace to move forward, and expound on the questions: Who are you today? Who are you tomorrow? What is the future? to search for our positioning in the future.
Aside from the changes of the global landscape, technological advancement is another major trend. Early this year, I attended Mobile World Congress (“MWC”) in Barcelona with the theme of “The Next Element” meaning the telecom industry is facing new elements, part of which is 5G. Currently many governments including Taiwan are promoting 5G. Several years ago, Far EasTone Telecommunications invested significantly in the bidding of 4G spectrum. Under cut-throat competition among major telecom players, now 4G service is still operating with unreasonably low price. As we are approaching to the 5G era, while we understand that the government intends to release the new spectrums with an aim to close the capital gap, the consistent investments have become a tremendous financial stress for the enterprise. Therefore, the major telecom players are still hesitant to continue their investments. As of now, their previous investments in 4G have not yet recovered.
In the world market, China Mobile has announced to engage in the construction of 5G network. With strong support and funding from the government, it would be difficult for other private enterprises to compete. Once the 5G infrastructure is completed in China, their telecom network will surpass many of the advanced nations. This is also the new power of technological advancement.
The transmission of 5G is indeed much speedier than that of 4G. But in reality, due to the affordable and fast downloads, consumers have downloaded abundant unnecessary data consequently. With much faster speed in 5G, the situation might become even worse. Yet, from another perspective, Taiwan already possesses a good niche in 4G, perhaps we can elaborate more in the software development area, research how to retrieve useful data from the gigantic data flow and utilize it fully. Furthermore, to catch up with Industry 4.0 we need to have the support of corresponding researches and developments. These represent areas for Taiwan to further explore, and pose tremendous opportunities for Yuan Ze to achieve further elevation.
Finally, let me share with you a poem written by English poet William Wordsworth: “Life is divided into three terms – that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and form the present to live better for the future.”＃
