With Taiwan and China both willing to cooperate to tap into the global e-book market by complementing each other in terms of e-book technology and content, the Taiwan government plans to communicate with China in the first half of next year to discuss a common Chinese e-book standard, an official from the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said Sunday.

The e-book market has been made popular by the multinational electronic commerce company Amazon.com, which recently launched its second generation e-book reader, the Kindle DX, the official noted.

The Kindle DX, which retails for US$489, features a larger 9.7 inch screen and has 3.3 GB of storage space that can hold about 3,500 books, according to the official.

It seems inevitable that in the future, e-book readers will not be just be reading devices, but will also be used for cloud computing, as personal computers, and in the content and telecommunication industries, the official forecast.

The e-book reader industry consists of browser makers, content providers, and online trading platform providers.

Taiwan's ASUSTeK Computer Inc. and AU Optronics Corp. have the capability to produce e-book browsers, and ASUSTeK has signed an investment agreement with a U.S. e-paper manufacturer.

In addition, Taiwanese display maker Prime View International Co.

has begun offering e-paper displays to Amazon, while some local publishers and telecommunication companies are promoting the development of an electronic publishing industry and the establishment of an online trading platform.

Last year, Taiwan's e-book production value was NT$12 billion. In an effort to increase the figure to NT$100 billion by 2013, the MOEA has earmarked NT$1.2 billion to subsidize the development of relevant products, with about NT$200 million allocated each year for 2009 and 2010, according to the official.

(By Tang Pei-chun and Y.L. Kao)