27 mei 2016
First result of cooperation with Taiwan for ‘Better Time at Home’
In October the City of Utrecht and a consortium of the Southern Taiwan Regional Business Innovation Center and the Taiwan Globalization Network signed a Letter of Intent stipulating cooperation and the development of a ‘Soft Landing Bridge’, easing access of Taiwanese companies to the Dutch and European market via Utrecht.’ SquareX Inc. from Taiwan is the first company that is making use of this Bridge. Together with partners from the Utrecht Region it will work towards enabling elderly and dependent people to live longer, happier lives in their own homes.
In a pilot project in the Utrecht Region, the partners will jointly develop integrated technologies and services that will cater the needs of the elderly. Existing and new innovations will be ‘plugged in’ via open standards which are provided by the Vital at Home program. Services such as the delivery of groceries, home cleaning assistance and transportation can easily be requested, video connections with relatives, neighbors, peers and professionals can be made, and safety and security technologies can be applied.
The City of Utrecht, SquareX Inc., VitaValley, the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht and the Economic Board Utrecht signed a Memorandum of Understanding on May 27 to affirm their commitment to work together. Proven solutions from the pilot region can be rolled out nationally and internationally.
On behalf of SquareX CEO Duck Hsieh, Ms. Evelyn Cheng (Strategy Director) signed the MoU. “SquareX is excited about starting the cooperation with the Utrecht Vital @ home project on June 1. The first solutions will be shown in October 2016 in demonstrations and in Q1 of 2017 we will start the roll-out of the solutions. If the Utrecht pilot is successful, we would like to expand in the Netherlands and other EU-countries”, according to Cheng.
The new collaboration with SquareX is a concrete step forward in the realisation of the regional ambition of governments, health care institutions and providers of healthcare ICT for longer, vital and safe independent living at home.