Yunlin County Magistrate Chang Li-shan was invited to attend the 2026 SDGs Sustainable Cities Exchange Forum: “Happy Cities • Sustainable Governance”, jointly organized by the New Taipei City Government and Business Today, on August 4. Moderated by Business Today Publisher Liang Yung-huang, the forum brought together New Taipei City Deputy Mayor Liu Ho-jan, Taoyuan Mayor Simon Chang, Keelung Deputy Mayor Fang Ding-an, and Taipei Deputy Mayor Chang Wen-te to discuss Smart Governance and Urban Resilience: Building a Sustainable Living Environment Centered on Human Needs. Magistrate Chang emphasized that Yunlin County continues to utilize AI as a tool, sustainability as its direction, and people as its core value, while deepening interdepartmental integration, cross-sector collaboration, and public-private partnerships to build an agricultural, industrial, commercial, and technology-oriented city that is smart, resilient, and livable.
Magistrate Chang Li-shan stated that one out of every three scallions in Taiwan comes from Yunlin, and one out of every three pigs is raised in Yunlin. As Taiwan’s largest producer of vegetables, fruits, and livestock, Yunlin has ranked first nationwide in agricultural output value for several consecutive years. However, many people still associate Yunlin with stereotypes such as being an agricultural county with an aging population and youth outmigration. In recent years, Yunlin has undergone significant transformation. What has changed is not merely its infrastructure, but the very foundation and vitality of the county itself.
Through the concerted efforts of the county government team, Yunlin has gradually overturned the stereotype of being “old and poor.” Not only has its demographic structure improved, but household incomes have also steadily increased. When Magistrate Chang first took office, the average household income was approximately NT$880,000; today, it has risen to NT$1.14 million. Yunlin’s national ranking in household income has improved from 20th to 13th. Meanwhile, average disposable household income has increased from NT$720,000 to NT$939,000, with the county’s national ranking rising from 20th to 12th, reflecting the achievements of county governance and industrial development. Through joint efforts between the county government and the private sector, Yunlin has also shed its reputation as a dull and uninteresting destination. Tourist visits have surged from approximately 7 million annually when she took office to a record-breaking 32.19 million visits in 2025. Following central government approval in 2026 of the “Pangshu Forest Park” and “Taiping Old Street” development projects, Yunlin is expected to challenge the milestone of 50 million annual visitors.
Magistrate Chang further noted that declining birth rates are a challenge faced by the entire nation. However, the issue cannot be solved through a single subsidy program. Instead, it requires creating an environment where young people are willing to start families, feel confident about having children, can raise them with peace of mind, and choose to remain in their hometowns for development. Therefore, when Yunlin’s crude birth rate rose to first place nationwide, what truly mattered was not just the figure itself but what it represented: the gradual success of efforts to establish a comprehensive support system that encourages childbirth, enables child-rearing, supports education, and provides assurance for families to stay and thrive. The county firmly believes that raising a child should not be a burden borne solely by families, but a responsibility shared by government, society, and industry. Consequently, Yunlin has developed a complete talent-development pathway spanning childbirth, childcare, education, healthcare, and future employment opportunities, accompanying children throughout every stage of their growth.
To support childbirth, Yunlin implemented the “Wan Bao Long Program”, investing nearly NT$600 million in childbirth incentives and parenting support measures to encourage young families to have children with confidence. During 2024 and 2025, the county welcomed 11,469 newborns, helping Yunlin achieve the highest crude birth rate in Taiwan. By the end of 2025, Yunlin’s population stood at 650,989, ranking ninth among Taiwan’s 22 cities and counties. What Yunlin has preserved is not only its population size but, more importantly, young families’ confidence in the future, while gradually rejuvenating its demographic structure. This year, the county further launched the “Children Are Precious, Three Is Best” policy, raising the childbirth incentive for a third child to NT$100,000 in hopes of reducing family burdens and further increasing fertility willingness among young adults.
Yet having children is only the first step; ensuring that parents can afford to raise and properly care for them is even more important. Accordingly, the county government has actively expanded public childcare resources by increasing the number of public family childcare homes and publicly established, privately operated infant care centers. It has also launched the “One-Stop Childcare Matching Platform”, integrating childcare matching, appointment scheduling, and information inquiry services. At the same time, the county encourages more professional childcare workers to join the sector, thereby strengthening overall childcare capacity. In early childhood education, a comprehensive review of public and private kindergarten facilities across Yunlin led to the addition of 96 public preschool classes, creating approximately 1,500 to 2,000 affordable childcare and education slots. This allows more two-year-old children to enroll in school earlier and truly achieve the goals of “happy learning for children and secure employment for parents,” thereby establishing a more family-friendly childcare environment from the outset.
Over the past several years, the county government has completed digital learning infrastructure projects in 195 schools and established 2,100 smart classrooms. Every classroom is equipped with a smart blackboard, and every teacher and student has access to a tablet device. AI education, digital teaching materials, and smart learning systems have been comprehensively introduced to narrow the urban-rural education gap. In addition, Yunlin became the first county in Taiwan to provide free nutritious lunches to all elementary and junior high school students, easing financial burdens on families while supporting children’s healthy development.
However, the county is even more concerned about whether children will have opportunities to remain and develop their careers in their hometown after they grow up. Therefore, the county government is simultaneously promoting the “9+1 Industrial Park Initiative,” planning more than 1,400 hectares of industrial development land. The initiative aims to attract emerging industries such as smart manufacturing, semiconductor supply chains, aerospace machinery, smart logistics, health industries, and green technology, with an estimated creation of around 40,000 high-quality jobs. The county is also leveraging the academic and research strengths of institutions such as National Yunlin University of Science and Technology and National Formosa University to deepen industry-academia collaboration, internship opportunities, and talent cultivation. This enables students to connect with industry while still in school and remain in Yunlin for employment after graduation, creating a positive cycle in which education cultivates talent, industry retains talent, and local development nurtures talent.
Magistrate Chang pointed out that the aging of the farming population poses a significant challenge to major agricultural regions. To address this issue, Yunlin County actively trains young farmers to succeed the older generation while strengthening modern farmers’ knowledge and professional skills. Through the “Smart Agriculture Innovation Enterprise Subsidy Program,” the county has introduced AIoT technologies, automated agricultural machinery and equipment, and industry-academia smart agriculture demonstration projects. These measures help local farmers adopt AI-powered agricultural technologies for innovative management and industrial upgrading. More than 100 farming, fishing, and livestock households have been successfully assisted. By integrating scientific tools and agricultural technologies to generate data-driven management systems, farmers can better control and optimize fertilization, harvesting, and materials management, while mitigating production losses caused by climate change. This ultimately reduces production costs, saves labor and materials, and increases profitability. Moreover, the county has established the “Yunlin Digital Agriculture Mobile Platform,” which integrates agricultural weather alerts, farmland intelligence services, crop price trends, and real-time warning information. As a result, farmers can monitor field conditions directly through their mobile phones and reduce operational risks associated with climate change.
During the forum, Magistrate Chang also shared that Yunlin was once again recognized in 2026 by the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) as one of the Top 7 Intelligent Communities in the World, while simultaneously obtaining full ICF Intelligent Community certification. The greatest significance of this achievement is that it demonstrates Yunlin’s smart governance is not a short-lived success, but rather a sustainable governance model capable of withstanding continuous international evaluation. Looking back to 2024, Yunlin participated in the ICF evaluation for the first time and distinguished itself among hundreds of cities worldwide, advancing from the Smart21 list to the global Top 7. Its return to the global Top 7 this year further signifies international recognition that Yunlin has built urban competitiveness centered on talent development, smart governance, digital innovation, and sustainable development.
Yunlin has transformed the challenges of an aging society into a model for smart healthcare, converted its identity as an agricultural county into an innovation hub for smart agriculture, turned flood management challenges into successful examples of smart disaster prevention, and transformed rural education into a practical field for AI-driven learning. These accomplishments are not the result of isolated projects but rather the outcome of long-term efforts in smart governance. For a non-special municipality whose foundation is agriculture, achieving a place among the world’s Top 7 intelligent communities for two consecutive years is particularly meaningful. It also proves that the essence of a truly smart city does not lie in its size but in its ability to use intelligent technologies to solve people’s real problems and enable every resident to share in the benefits of technological advancement. This honor belongs not only to the county government team but also to all the people of Yunlin whose collective efforts made it possible.
Yunlin County faces relatively high levels of population aging and declining birth rates. Compared with neighboring jurisdictions, there are indeed disparities in areas such as National Health Insurance-approved hospital bed capacity and the resources of emergency medical centers. Consequently, Yunlin’s overall healthcare and emergency response resilience has historically been more limited when faced with major incidents and critical medical challenges. Nevertheless, county agencies and healthcare partners share a common belief: “Insufficient resources and geographic distance must never become reasons for health inequality.” Therefore, after extensive discussions among the Fire Bureau, the Public Health Bureau, and designated emergency hospitals, a consensus was reached to establish the “Guardian Alliance.” Through cross-agency and cross-healthcare-system collaboration, the initiative seeks to narrow urban-rural healthcare disparities through smart healthcare and enhance resilience to extreme weather through smart disaster prevention. The ultimate goal is to provide better care for seniors, greater security for residents facing natural disasters, and a stronger sense of urban resilience for every citizen.
In conclusion, Magistrate Chang emphasized that the true value of sustainable governance is not how advanced technology is, but whether people’s lives become more convenient, cities become more livable, and the future becomes more hopeful. She sincerely hopes that Yunlin will become not only a smart city but a truly resilient, sustainable, and happiness-oriented AI Smart City 2.0.
Looking ahead, Yunlin County will continue to deepen AI-driven smart governance. AI will not only be integrated into administrative document systems but also comprehensively applied across agriculture, transportation, disaster prevention, healthcare, education, and social care. For example, in smart agriculture, the county plans to integrate the “Yunlin Agricultural Information Platform,” meteorological warnings, market information, and agricultural production data into a more comprehensive smart decision-making system. In disaster prevention, Yunlin will continue improving AI-powered flood forecasting, smart flood control, and environmental monitoring systems to strengthen resilience against extreme weather. In public administration, the county will expand the application of AI and Robotic Process Automation (RPA), enabling government services to become faster, more accurate, and more responsive to citizens’ needs.
The county also aims to build a more comprehensive sustainable industrial ecosystem. It will continue actively advancing the 9+1 Industrial Park Initiative, integrating smart agriculture, the circular economy, green energy, and AI technologies so that traditional agriculture and smart manufacturing can be connected into a complete industrial chain. This will increase the value of agricultural products, create more high-quality employment opportunities, attract young people to return home, and encourage businesses to invest in Yunlin.
At the same time, Yunlin will continue promoting a people-centered smart lifestyle. In response to an aging society, the county will integrate smart healthcare, long-term care services, social welfare, and health promotion programs to establish a more comprehensive smart care system. It will also continue advancing digital inclusion, narrowing digital gaps between urban and rural communities and across generations, ensuring that technology is not merely a tool for a select few but a public service accessible to every resident.
Sources:Yunlin County Government
