TAIPEI: Computex Taipei, Asia's biggest Information Technology exhibition and the world's leading ICT procurement platform, officially opens today.

This year's exhibition, running until June 6th, is co-hosted by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) and the Taipei Computer Association (TCA). Some 35,000 overseas buyers and 1,700 exhibitors are expected generating new business worth $20 billion.

WiMAX, touchscreen technology, and netbooks are expected to be the dominant forces behind this year's program.

Companies from Taiwan dominated the second Computex Taipei design and innovation (d&i) awards yesterday. Five local companies won gold from among 20 short-listed entries.

"The surprise winners in this year's Computex Taipei d&i awards represent a fresh variety of creations," said the panel of judges at an awards ceremony hosted by the semi-official TAITRA and TCA.

"An amazing development has taken place and the future of Taiwanese design looks promising," the panel added.

Although this year the judges did not offer the Green Award to any entry, they urged companies to work toward advancing this special field.

This year, 147 entries were submitted by participants from the United States, South Korea, the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.

The five gold winners were AcerAspire 3935 Notebook by Acer Inc, DHKS-10 Dual Tray LCD Console Drawer by Hoeya Technology, Inc, SI-24S Digital Signage System by IBASE Technology Inc, SpinQ CPU Cooler by Thermaltake Technology Co Ltd, and ZEBEX Z-3130BT Handy Bluetooth CCD Barcode Scanner by ZEBEX Industries Inc. Having won the Computex gold awards, these products have automatically earned the right to carry the "Taiwan Good Design" label.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 06/02/2009 page2)