February 2022
Oli Wong and Eddie Shih
The Organizational Act of the Executive Yuan and the Organizational Act of the Ministry of Digital Development approved by the Legislative Yuan on December 28, 2021 and were promulgated on January 19, 2022. The effective date of this Law will be separately set by the Executive Yuan.
I. The scope of affairs of the Ministry of Digital Development
Under the amended Organizational Act of the Executive Yuan, the Executive Yuan shall set up the Ministry of Digital Development. The current Ministry of Science and Technology will be restructured into the National Science and Technology Commission.
In accordance with the Organizational Act of the Ministry of Digital Development, the Ministry of Digital Development will integrate the affairs of the five major areas, namely, telecommunications, information, cyber-security, network, and communications, under the ministries and commissions of the Executive Yuan, with a scope of affairs covering national communications, digital information, digital economy-related industries, national information and communications technology (ICT) security, government digital services, and digital infrastructure, etc., in order to achieve the objectives of ensuring national ICT security, promoting the development of the digital industry, and accelerating the digital transformation of this nation. (Articles 1 and 2 of the Organizational Act of the Ministry of Digital Development).
According to the materials on the specific planning of the Ministry of Digital Development submitted by the Ministry of Science and Technology to the Legislative Yuan in 2021[1], the scope of affairs (including the affairs transferred from other ministries and commissions and new affairs items) of the Ministry of Digital Development is shown in the table below:
| Affairs Transferred from Other Ministries and Commissions | New Affairs | |
| Ministry or Commission | Existing Affairs | |
| National Communications Commission | The development and facilitation of communications infrastructure and the telecommunications industry | Digital transformation |
| Ministry of Transportation and Communications | Overall communications resources planning | Digital legal regime |
| Ministry of Economic Affairs | The development and facilitation of industries such as cybersecurity, AI, software, digital contents, electronic commerce, systems integration, etc. | Data governance |
| National Development Council | Smart government and open data | Cultivation of talents |
| The Department of Cyber Security of the Executive Yuan | Cybersecurity | Regulatory sandbox |
II. The organizational structure and staffing of the Ministry of Digital Development
For the planning and implementation of economic and industrial policies, the Ministry of Digital Development will set up two subordinate agencies, namely, the Digital Industry Agency and the Cyber Security Agency. The Digital Industry Agency is mainly responsible for the planning and implementation of policies related to the digital economy industry, while the Cyber Security Agency is primarily responsible for coordinating the overall cybersecurity governance structure of the government, in order to centralize the resources and administration of cybersecurity (Article 5 of the Organizational Act of the Ministry of Digital Development).
In view of the difficulty in recruiting professional digital technology and industry talents, in order to meet the demands for diversified talents in the Ministry of Digital Development, the existing personnel are retained, coupled with a flexible recruitment mechanism to hire professionals in the fields of digital technology, application, and management. Pursuant to the stipulations, the headcount of the professionals recruited cannot exceed 100. (Articles 6 and 7 of the Organizational Act of Ministry of Digital Development)
III. Points to note in the future
In the past decade, the wave of digitization has swept the world, and the country needs “digital transformation” while the “digital industry” has emerged in the private sector. Cybersecurity is required as the foundation of both. Since the affairs under the Ministry of Digital Development are inseparable from people’s daily lives, whether digital content industries such as digital games, computer animation, digital learning, and digital audio-visual applications will come under its jurisdiction in the future and how the Ministry of Digital Development will operate after its establishment deserve our continuous attention.
[1] See the Ke-Bu-Qian-1100025490 Circular of May 6, 2021 from the Ministry of Science and Technology.