IBM Taiwan and the government-sponsored Institute for Information Industry (III) on July 2 jointly announced the establishment of the SOA (service-oriented architecture) Innovation Center in Taiwan, the first of its kind in the country, in an attempt to advance the international competitiveness of Taiwan's software development industry.

The innovation center evolved through the expansion of the IBM Open Partner Center in Taiwan, according to IBM Taiwan. Through III's business connections and help, the center will provide IBM's SOA software/hardware technological support for Taiwan-based software developers, especially independent software vendors (ISVs) and system integrators (SIs), to develop and test SOA solutions at minimum cost, IBM Taiwan pointed out. IBM Taiwan and III will jointly operate the center.