To strengthen international city exchanges and gain insights into smart governance, representatives from the Málaga City Council, Spain, recently visited the Hsinchu County Government. Both parties engaged in in-depth dialogues on smart city policies, Public-Private Partnership (PPP) models, and strategies to enhance public engagement with digital services. During the meeting, the Hsinchu County Government shared its three core future development strategies, aiming to spark innovative ideas and create collaboration opportunities across technology, industry, and culture.
On behalf of County Magistrate Yang Wen-ke, Secretary-General Lee An-yu delivered the welcoming remarks. She noted that Málaga has successfully transformed from a traditional tourism hub into a hybrid city blending culture and technology. The establishment of the Málaga TechPark, which has attracted international giants such as Google, Vodafone, and Microsoft—and even an IMEC 12-inch wafer R&D center—aligns perfectly with the Hsinchu County Government’s vision of being both tech-forward and livable. Lee expressed that Málaga’s journey serves as an excellent reference for Hsinchu and looks forward to fostering deeper industry ties and a long-term, stable partnership.
Málaga representatives Cristina Muñoz Zea and Cristian García-Espina Adank shared that the rapid development of their science park over the past 20 years has attracted significant talent and industry. They emphasized that Hsinchu is a vital peer due to its own Science Park and leadership in semiconductors and high-tech industries. They extended their gratitude to Vice President Hsieh Hung-nien of the Smart City Research Institute at Chung Hua University for facilitating this exchange. Furthermore, they invited the Hsinchu County Government team to attend the Smart City Seminar in Málaga this September to gain a deeper understanding of Spain’s progress in smart urban development.
In response, Secretary-General Lee thanked the delegates for the invitation to the seminar and the International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation (IASP) events, noting that these are valuable learning opportunities for Hsinchu County.
During the technical exchange, the Hsinchu County Government’s Department of Digital Development presented three core strategies aimed at increasing service stickiness and proactive governance:
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AI Citizen Butler: Shifting from people searching for services to services finding people. This includes the Welfare Inquiry Station 2.0, which uses an intuitive genealogical interface for welfare eligibility checks. Future integration of Large Language Models (LLM) and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) will make public sector information more conversational and accurate, eventually enabling proactive notifications with user consent.
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Smart Eye for Safety: Utilizing Vision-Language Models (VLM) and Edge Computing, this project will deploy an all-day AI safety detection system. By integrating video and behavioral analysis, the system can identify anomalies—such as violent incidents involving weapons or traffic accidents—in real-time, significantly boosting public safety and early-warning capabilities.
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Smart Sandbox Innovation Project: Deepening public-private partnerships by implementing the spirit of Public Proposals, Expert Execution. Residents identify pain points in daily life, which are then addressed by enterprises and academic units to transform creative ideas into functional technological prototypes.
The meeting was attended by the Hsinchu County Government team and academic experts, including Vice President Hsieh Hung-nien. The Málaga representatives expressed strong resonance with Hsinchu’s initiatives, particularly in digital surveillance and AI integration, noting that Málaga has similar projects underway. Liu Yi-fan, Director of the Department of Digital Development, added that the Smart Eye for Safety project is expected to launch in May, and the results will be shared with international partners.