Itochu Corporation

07/16/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 07/15/2024 21:26

ITOCHU Announces Participation in Smart City Project of Tainan in Taiwan

ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President & COO; hereinafter "ITOCHU") announced today that it had received an order for the smart city project run by the Tainan City Government, titled the Integrated Development Project for Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City, through ITOCHU Taiwan Corporation (headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan; Yuichiro Ono, Chairman & President; hereinafter "ITOCHU Taiwan"), a local subsidiary wholly owned by ITOCHU, and that it would participate in this project as project owner.

The Tainan City Government has launched a smart city plan for the Shalun district in the city with a view to accelerating technical innovation using green energy technologies. In addition, it plans to invest around 10 billion New Taiwan dollars in developing the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. This district has been introducing green energy and smart technologies in a step-by-step manner to push ahead with smart city construction and development.

Since its establishment in 1959, ITOCHU Taiwan has been harnessing the ITOCHU Group's global network to actively expand investments and trading inside and outside Taiwan through alliances with solid local companies. The recent receipt of an order for this project is in recognition of its track record. For this project, ITOCHU has signed partnership agreements with Accton Technology Corporation (headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan; Kuo-Hsiu Huang, Chairman; hereinafter "Accton"), with Industrial Technology Research Institute (headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan; Chih-Kung Lee; hereinafter "ITRI") and with National Cheng Kung University (headquartered in Tainan, Taiwan; Meng-Ru Shen, President; hereinafter "NCKU"). ITOCHU will strive to commercialize and industrialize elemental technologies in collaboration between industry, government and academia. It will also work with ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Tatsushi Shingu, President & Chief Executive Officer; hereinafter "CTC"), an ITOCHU Group company, in the project.

Project Outline

Under the keywords of smart energy, smart environment and smart transport, the project will construct a data integration platform with the use of IoT solutions and applications and make proposals regarding the future of the smart city plan.

(1) Smart energy e.g. Construction of an energy management platform, demand-supply forecast of green energy, and analysis of power consumption in a specific area
(2) Smart environment e.g. Human flow analysis using smart poles(*) and the development of a system for traffic rules monitoring
(3) Smart transport e.g. Construction of algorithms for traffic lights with the use of AI technologies and the introduction of MaaS technologies

ITOCHU has put forth a new management policy, "The Brand-New Deal: Profit opportunities are shifting downstream," and is pursuing a policy of enhancing its contribution to and engagement with the SDGs through business activities" while listening to all stakeholders, including the market, society, and consumers. ITOCHU will continue to realize sustainable societies.

  • *Smart poles are devices shaped like utility poles equipped with Wi-Fi communication, cameras for measuring human flows and monitoring traffic conditions, digital signage and other functions. Eleven such devices have already been installed in the district.

Project implementation structure