In recent years, various types of unmanned vehicle technologies and innovative applications have flourished, outlining the next generation of smart transportation, as well as bringing challenges to the existing regulatory environmental and supervision mechanisms in various countries. In order to promote the development of unmanned vehicle technology in Taiwan, and to keep pace with other advanced countries in the world, The Ministry of Economic Affairs, referring to the spirit of Regulatory Sandbox of the Financial Technology Development and Financial Technology Innovation and Experiment Act, empowers innovations in the cooperation among Industry, Academia and Research fields of unmanned vehicles. Under specific conditions, it is indispensable to temporarily exempt the application of the relevant supervisory regulations through legislation. Through this method, The Government can encourage research, development and innovative applications of Industry Academia, and promote the flexible unmanned vehicle development of industrial technologies and innovative services. It will lay a solid foundation for the next generation of smart transportation in Taiwan.

In addition, since the unmanned vehicles cover the comprehensive fields in human life, the application of the unmanned vehicles often involves cross-conference issues. To give consideration to the development of science and technology and administrative efficiency, to build an overall common basis for the development of Taiwan´s unmanned vehicle technology, and to provide the basis for individual supervision standards of the testing, verification, and operation of various types of unmanned vehicles, The Ministry of Economic Affairs announces a draft of “Unmanned Vehicle Technology Development and Innovative Experimentation Act” (hereinafter abbreviated as “Act”) on March 16, 2018. In Ministry of Economic Affairs´ opinion, the purposes of Act are reviewing the relevant laws and regulations in light of innovations, and facilitating the development of unmanned technical innovation business. The draft Act is thus prescribed by referring to the spirits of the regulatory sandbox of financial technology to provide management mechanisms on the performance of unmanned vehicle technology related experiments. The draft Act provides the documents and project contents required for applying for such an experiment, the examination guidance and the exemption to some laws and regulations. There are several key points as follows:

1.General (drafts 1 to 3)
The legislative intent, the competent authority and the definition of terms in this Act.

2.Formal requirements and procedures (drafts 4 to 12)
Including the application documents and innovative experimental plans; the review composition of the meeting, the review resolutions; the innovation experiment period and the extension of the experimental plan, and the disclosure of relevant information.

3.The Management (drafts 13 to 23)
Including the application and management of wireless communication required for innovative experiments; the innovative experimental supervision measures; the announcement of relevant information, laboratory safety and accident handling, information security and protection of personal data; the conditions for the suspension; the evaluation of results and exclusion of applicable laws, regulations, and administrative rules.

4.The date of implementation of this Rule (drafts 14)

Amendment of Civil Aviation Law adds Articles 43-3, 49-1, title of Chapter 9-2, Articles 99-9~99-19, 110-3, 118-1~118-3 and 121-1；and revises Articles 2, 34, 40, 41-1, 44, 48, 58-1, 63-1, 65, 73, 76, 77, 99-8 , 101, 111, 112, 119-2 and 123.The Effective Date is April 27th, 2018. The enforcement date of the amended Articles 99-9 through 99-19 and 118-1 through 118-3 shall be stipulated by the Executive Yuan.The amendment of April 25th, 2018 applies to the Civil Aviation Law. The essential points of remote controlled drone are:

1.To deal with technical corrections and revise wordings (Article 99-8)
2. To add Chapter 9-2 titled “remote controlled drone”
3.To add that the owner or operator of a remote controlled drone shall be responsible for using safety, risk management and reporting of events (Article 99-9)
4.To add that those remote controlled drones owned by natural persons and maximum takeoff weight exceed 250 grams or those owned by government agencies (institutions), schools or juridical persons shall be registered (Article 99-10)
5.To add that design, manufacture and modification of a remote controlled drone shall be filled with the Civil Aeronautics Administration for inspection and those imported shall be certified or approved by the Civil Aeronautics Administration (Article 99-11)
6.To add that where a foreigner who has obtained relevant documentations on registration, operation and inspection certificates issued by a foreign government shall engage in remote controlled drone flight activities in accordance with regulations stipulated in Chapter 9-2 of this Law after identifying by the Civil Aeronautics Administration (Article 99-12)
7. To add that no remote controlled drone flight activities shall be allowed within a certain distance around any prohibited area, restricted area and airport or airfield (Article 99-13)
8.To add regulations which shall be complied while engaging in remote controlled drone flight activities (Article 99-14)
9. To add that the owner and operator of a remote controlled drone shall be liable for compensation in case of occurring incidents and causing damage to others (Article 99-15)
10. To add that in case that a government agency engages in activities within a certain distance around the airport or airfield to perform its legal duties such as disaster prevention and rescue, detection, investigation as well as correction business or activities prescribed under Subparagraph 2 through 8, Paragraph 1 of Article 99-14, after getting approval by the Civil Aeronautics Administration, may be exempt from related restrictions stipulated in Articles 99-13 and 99-14 (Article 16)
11. To add that the Ministry of Transportation and Communication shall enact related regulations governing the management and commission with regard to remote controlled drone (Articles 99-17 and 99-18)
12. To add that regulations of Article 99 shall apply, mutatis mutandis, to the remote controlled drone (Article 99-19)
13. To add and revise penalties imposed for violating related regulations of this Law (Articles 101, 110-3, 111, 112, 118-1, 118-2, 118-3 and 119-2)
14. To add that since the enforcement date of the amendment to this Law, provisions governing air transportation enterprise stipulated under the Statute For Overseeing Privately Owned Public Utilities shall no longer be applicable (Article 121-1)
15. To add that the enforcement date of the amended Articles 99-9 through 99-19 and 118-1 through 118-3 shall be stipulated by the Executive Yuan. (Article 123)

On 2018 May 24, Premier Lai Ching-te instructed government agencies to properly respond to the EU´s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Since The EU is the fifth largest trading partner and the largest source of foreign investment to our country, the implementation of GDPR will not only have great impact on operations of our country´s companies in the European Union but also on the business related to the EU. Government agencies should pay close attention to the impact of GDPR and respond properly..

The commencement date of EU´s GDPR is May 25th. The key points of the GDPR include: applying the regulation to territories outside the EU under certain circumstances, increasing the responsibilities of the enterprise, providing more comprehensive　protection of rights of personal data, and basically prohibits the cross-border transfer of personal data but with some exceptions. Exceptional permission situations include: Enterprises has adopted appropriate protective measures that meet the standards of the GDPR or has obtained consent from the data subjects. If a country has been identified by EU that has an adequate level of data protection with EU, the personal data can flow from the EU to that country without additional constrains.

Premier Lai Ching-te said that Taiwan´s Personal Information Protection Act and the EU´s GDPR have similar regulations with the basic principles of personal data protection. However the "Personal Information Protection Act" doesn´t set up a single supervisory agency but adopts the approach of distributed powers to different authorities. The National Development Council (NDC) was instructed by the Premier to create an office in charge of the protection of personal data, and to incorporate with the EU on the issue of adequacy as soon as possible.

Premier Lai Ching-te pointed out that in the digital economy, the data has great market values, and the trend of big data and information sharing is also inevitable. Our country should take data protection seriously, and the protection of personal data while transferring is equally important under the age of globalization.

Our country will soon discuss with the EU on how to arrange adequacy recognition of personal data protection, and each government agency will review data protection topics under their jurisdictions and provide corporate counseling services. An official website was also set up by the NDC to assist enterprises to respond to GDPR implementation.

Premier Lai Ching-te, after hearing the report from National Development Council (NDC) on the recent accomplishment of deregulation, said that facing the aggressive competition from the international business environment, our country´s policies and regulations need to keep flexibility and be proactive to respond to any challenge.

Over the past two decades the government has started many times of deregulation initiatives, said Premier Lai, but results have been not clear and have no vital impact on public or private enterprise. Except for the lengthy and complex legislation or amendment process, the main barriers have been that the civil servants and agencies tend to act conservatively to avoid any chance of being accused of violating the law. In the cases which the enabling statute is not expressly defined, ministries and agencies often enforce strict rules through supporting codes or interpretation, thereby vastly reducing the reactive ability of administrative.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Abstract

Articulating strategies for fast-paced commercialization of emerging technologies while simultaneously ensuring user safety is a major challenge facing today´s administrative regulations, as technological innovation brought by the fourth industrial revolution has led to the creation of new products and new services in all aspects of our society nowadays. This article presents the characteristics and problems of Japan´s regulatory reform since the 1980s, analyzes the national strategic special zones system adopted by Japan in recent years aiming to strengthen Japan´s national competitiveness, and discusses the regulatory reform observed under the Industrial Competitiveness Enhancement Act in Japan. This article also covers the Japan-style regulatory sandbox system proposed in the Growth Strategy 2017, which introduces a project-based regulatory sandbox scheme for nationwide implementation as well as an area-limited regulatory sandbox scheme proposed under the draft amendment of the National Strategic Special Zones Law in Japan. In conclusion, based on those lessons learned from Japan´s experience, this article proposes some recommendations for the industrial innovation and regulatory reform in Taiwan.

Keywords: national strategic economic zone, deregulation, Regulatory Reform, Regulatory Sandbox

<Source: Lin Mei-feng, Industrial Innovation and Regulatory Reform-Lessons Learned from the National Strategic Special Zone System and Regulatory Reform in Japan t, Science and Technology Law Review Vol. 30 No. 4, June. 2018 p.p. 39-68>