Helping those who help themselves

Hal seki Hal seki

Local government and municipalities think that it is difficult to catch up such high-tech innovation. Japan has 1,741 municipalities, so many local governments are very small and difficult to catch up to new technologies. How do you think?

Municipalities and local governments are finding it difficult to keep up with these high-tech innovations. There are 1,741 municipalities in Japan, and many of them are very small and have difficulty keeping up with new technologies. What do you think?

Audrey Tang Audrey Tang

Well, I mean, maybe it's not about catching up to new technologies. We always take the stance of helping the helpers. So, the idea is that the people who help their local citizens, we need to empower them, not to force them to use the national system. This is why the $6,000 NTD hand-out system deliberately chose these three different ways. People who are okay with post office, like my grandma, they still go to the post office. People who like convenience stores, everybody likes convenience stores, go to the convenience store and use the ATM machine embedded in the convenience store. People who use their phones just type their account and receive cash from their phones.

And so, if we had only used one or two of these three main ways of dispensing cash, there are some people who will be forced to retrain in the municipalities. But because these three already encompass all of the local governments, they are not going to be able to use the national system. So, because these three already encompass all of the options, really, for what people usually interact with the financial system. So, nobody needs to relearn anything. They just reuse whatever they have.

So if we were using only one or two of these three primary cash distribution methods, people would be forced to retrain in municipalities. However, these three already encompass all local governments, so we would not be able to use the national system. That is, because these three actually already encompass all the options for what people normally interact with the financial system. Therefore, no one needs to relearn anything. They just reuse whatever they have.

Audrey Tang Audrey Tang

This is just like when we do mask pre-ordering or our vaccine registration. People who trust the local pharmacies, they go to the local pharmacies. People who trust the, again, convenience stores, go to the convenience stores. People who use the Universal Healthcare Express app will use the app.

This is the same as placing an appointment order for masks or registering for vaccines. People who trust their local pharmacy go to their local pharmacy. Those who trust the convenience store will still go to the convenience store. People who use the Universal Health Care Express app will use this app.

And we sometimes, like for vulnerable population, of course, we will soon have a plan to give them like free 4G connectivity and so on. But even before that, we also make sure that they can just use a printed form and they can fill their envelope of their bank accounts or just write in their contact for receiving a check. And they can just fill it and put it into a nearby post place. And then, the AI recognition or OCR or whatever, have it on the backend.

And sometimes, of course, there will soon be plans to provide free 4G connections and the like for vulnerable populations. But even before that, they make sure that they can simply use the printed form to fill out their bank account envelopes or write to their contacts to pick up their checks. They can then fill it out and place it in a nearby post office box. Then there is that on the back end, including AI recognition and OCR.

Audrey Tang Audrey Tang

So, for them, again, there is no difference of how they normally exchange things. But streamlining happens on the back end to help the helpers for them, right? So, this is the same principle we adopt this year for the age tech for people to empower the elderly people by helping their helpers instead of just treating them as people to be, you know, care-taking relationship. We want to make sure that they can shine on their own. Maybe they are comfortable only with live video. Then live video it is. Live video, if they only speak their local language, local language it is. If they only do sign language, sign language it is. So, by designing civic tech to fit the helpers, I think we can avoid a lot of the drawback on forcing the municipalities to retrain their staff.

So, for them, again, there is no difference in the normal way things are exchanged. But on the back end, streamlining is done to help those who help, right? So this is the same principle that we have adopted this year for AgeTech to empower the elderly by helping helpers, rather than treating them as a caregiving relationship. We want them to be able to shine on their own. Perhaps they are used to only live video. Then there is live video. Live video is a local language if they speak only their local language. If they only sign, it is sign language. So I think that by designing civic tech to fit the helpers, we can avoid many of the drawbacks that force municipalities to retrain their staff.

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