AICT Club

Written by Peter Li-Chang Kuo

Our early "AICT Initiative," a best practice proposal at APEC 2003, predicted a volume “USD 10 trillion.” With the advent of AI, this figure has become a reality. The "AICT Club" (a gateway of commercial link to the universal businesses) is the first step in launching a century-long business opportunity.

Fig 1: APEC 2003 Best Practice Proposal

A homemaker, Linda Din (Ding Lin-Hong), witnessed Mattel shutting down its Taiwan factory (MLT), leaving behind 5,000 unemployed people. Unable to find jobs, some went into taxi driving and were then robbed. Consequently, she a social enterprise —“SEL” (Sanhornic Enterprise Ltd.) — and improved the AV (Audio/ Vedio) connector so that it could be assembled and used to earn a living with just two hands and a one-foot table. But after creating 100 jobs, she discovered that 4,900 more people still needed work— this was a “structural social dilemma” triggered by government failure. After diligent spiritual practice, a certain day in 1986 she lay beside the kitchen table, drawing, cutting, and pasting, and produced a "TES Diagram,” describing it as “Electronic + Commerce,” also called “E-Commerce,” or EC.

Fig 2: TES Diagram

Linda Din is a well-known Preacher of generosity and virtue; she knew many people, and many people knew her. She took the “TES Diagram” from National Taiwan University to Pingtung Agricultural Junior College, and everyone who heard her burst into laughter — laughing at how ridiculous her idea seemed, laughing at what kind of electronic store system TES was supposed to be, and whether it could really create new jobs. Some even laughed until their “gums fell out.” However, on December 28–29, 1989, the Economic Daily News and the Commercial Times, Taiwan’s two major newspapers, reported on her invention of the “RF Transmitter” (TRD, Toller), and many experts again questioned: “What the hell is that?”

Fig 3: Report in 1989 about RF Transmitter

Because I rescued He-man and Barbie, so was called the "Gadget Master" by Mrs. Ruth Handler, I faxed the "RF Transmitter diagram" to many internationally renowned companies, including Philips, Siemens, Toshiba, and Fujitsu. None of them could understand what it was, even though we already had results, a prototype, and specifications.

In 1997, even with the support of four senior officials from central and provincial government agencies, Linda Din's proposal “eBAS” to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) was rejected by two economists with ulterior motives. Unexpectedly, Linda Din turned her invention into a color brochure printed on one A4 sheet folded into A5 four pages (Fig 3), brought it to APEC in Vancouver, and TES was called by Canadian Industry Minister John Manley “A Door to the Global Market.” At the same time, it ignited hope for the rebirth of countries hit by the Asian Financial Crisis, and was incorporated into "Article 8-v" of the Ministerial Meeting (MM) Joint Statement under “Economic and Technical Cooperation.” The ministers unanimously agreed: “Electronic Commerce is an important technological breakthrough.” They hoped it would be formulated into a long-term work plan in 1998.

Fig 4: Color Brochure distributed widely at APEC (non-original version)

Linda Din was invited to serve as an APEC speaker in 1998, fought through seven obstacles, and proposed TES, finally helping to establish the “E-Commerce Constitution” and becoming the “Steering the Global E-Commerce” program. She was then called the “Mother of E-Commerce.” In the 1999 APEC MM Joint Statement, "Article 41" instructed that “officials should actively develop the use of electronic commerce by small and medium-sized enterprises,” strongly urging each economy to implement the Steering Program. Linda Din continued to propose the “ICT Initiative” at APEC 2000 in Brunei, which became the well-known “Brunei Goals,” influencing the development of the 21st-century technology industry, and the impact continues to this day.

Fig 5: APEC 1998 Proposal TES to achieve the E-Commerce Industry

At the center of the TES diagram is the “Control Center” (Fig 2), the system’s core. It is operated by the TSCM supply chain management system, which is responsible for intelligent communication, intelligent analysis, intelligent decision-making, and distribution. It is the TES sub-invention in which the most time and money were invested. Since successfully challenging PTH in 1966, I have developed more than ten thousand products — from individual parts to complete factory equipment — without filing a single patent, because I oppose the patent system, believing “patents to be the root of disputes.” However, I endured the ignorance of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), spent an additional NT$ 525,200, and even taught a Technology University so that TSCM could be archived under the title “Development of a Supply Chain Management Information System for an Electronic Sales System” in the national record — "Compilation of SBIR Achievements, 1998–2000" (published by the MOEA, State-owned Enterprise Committee), thereby preserving Taiwan’s intellectual property sovereignty.

Fig 6: SBIR Achievements Compilation, 1988–1989 — TSCM

The value of the "TransSmart Supply Chain Management" (TSCM) system is explained as follows:

I. Asset Name: TransSmart Supply Chain Management (TSCM)

II. Historical Investment and Development Background:

The TSCM system originated from continuous research and development initiated by its inventor in 1986, followed by more than a decade of technological accumulation, practical implementation, and field validation.

After successfully contributing to the establishment of the 1998 APEC E-Commerce Blueprint (commonly referred to by the inventor as the "APEC E-Commerce Constitution"), the inventor further invested NT$525,200 during 1998–2000 to establish a long-term foundation for Taiwan's intellectual property sovereignty. Despite limited resources and numerous administrative and technical challenges, the inventor personally supervised and guided a university of science and technology in completing the system's development, implementation, and practical demonstration.

III. Official Registration and Authoritative Recognition:

The TSCM system was officially included in the “SBIR Achievement Compendium (1998–2000)” published by the State-owned Enterprise Commission, Ministry of Economic Affairs, thereby becoming part of an officially archived national record.

From a technological perspective, TSCM represents an early implementation of an integrated framework encompassing intelligent communication, intelligent analysis, intelligent decision-making, and intelligent distribution. It also constitutes one of the foundational technological origins and historical evidences supporting the Transaction Economy System (TES), a non-cash transaction architecture.

IV. Positioning as the Core Subject of Asset Audit:

The asset under evaluation is not merely a conceptual proposal nor an expired patent, but a traceable and verifiable intellectual asset possessing the following characteristics:

1) It has been officially documented in a national government publication, providing both credibility and an authenticated historical timestamp.

2) It demonstrates continuous technological evolution spanning multiple decades and can be directly correlated with today's ICT, e-commerce, digital payment, and supply-chain management architectures.

3) It serves as institutional and historical source evidence for the evolution of modern digital transaction infrastructures.

Accordingly, the TSCM system may reasonably be positioned as a Foundational Reference System for the architectural logic underlying global ICT and E-Commerce infrastructures.

V. Accounting Revaluation and Asset Reconstruction:

1. Historical Asset Value Erosion: Over the past several decades, numerous multinational corporations (MNCs) have broadly adopted, adapted, or disaggregated the core control logic embodied in TSCM across e-commerce platforms, logistics management, and contactless electronic payment systems. According to the inventor's position, these applications evolved without establishing explicit licensing arrangements or royalty-sharing mechanisms. Consequently, the economic value of the original intellectual asset was not reflected in financial statements, resulting in long-term undervaluation of the asset and loss of economic benefits.

2. Retroactive Royalty Accounts Receivable (AR): Using an estimated US$200 trillion annual global non-cash transaction volume (GMV) as the macroeconomic background, and conservatively assuming that approximately "US$10 trillion" relates to supply-chain activities, a hypothetical architectural licensing fee of only "0.01%" would correspond to approximately US$1 billion in annual licensing value. Accumulated over a twenty-year period, the estimated historical Accounts Receivable (AR) would amount to approximately "US$10–20 billion." This estimate is based on an exceptionally conservative royalty rate relative to international licensing practices and is therefore intended as a defendable valuation scenario rather than a maximum claim.

3. Future Sustainable Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR): Following implementation of the proposed AICT Control Center as a gate-governed transaction management platform, a closed-loop transaction and settlement ecosystem could potentially generate recurring revenues from:

1) Platform service fees and software licensing;

2) Transaction settlement and data governance services; and

3) Cross-border supply-chain collaboration and operational management.

Depending on deployment scale and market penetration, the projected Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) is estimated to range from “US$10 billion to US$100 billion.”

VI. Supplementary Explanation:

For example, the automated workflow commonly found in today's e-commerce platforms—linking "order processing, inventory management, logistics fulfillment, and financial settlement" — essentially embodies the intelligent decision-making and distribution control process defined by TSCM. If this architectural framework is recognized as a foundational design reference, it provides a reasonable basis for asserting its broad application value throughout the global digital commerce ecosystem.

Following the TES Technology Achievement Presentation held on June 2, 2000, at the auditorium of the Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC), visitors arrived continuously at “Panhornic ComMec Inc.” (PCI) to observe live demonstrations. The internationally recognized "Mother of E-Commerce" warmly welcomed visitors, personally demonstrated the TES system, patiently explained its operational principles, and frequently hosted guests for meals at either the Howard Plaza Hotel or IBA, reflecting both her commitment to promoting the technology and her confidence in its practical value.

Fig 7. News Coverage of TES Achievement Presentation

On January 27, 2001, when we returned from Japan and were preparing to reopen after the Lunar New Year, PCI was hit by a major robbery. All research and development achievements, computer hosts, and written materials were looted. The police officer who inspected the scene said: “This was done by insiders. Just wait and see — whoever uses it first is the thief!”

Wiping away her tears, Linda Din picked up her pen and did something that astonished everyone: she wrote, in the first person, a book about the 15 years of her efforts in social responsibility investment (SRI)—“creating innovative industry, solving unemployment” and “traditional industry technologization, technology industry intelligence”—titled "Linda Din, A Lady of Rich Taiwan" (The Daughter of a Defense Employee) (Ding Lin-Hong, 2001). She printed 10,000 copies and sent them to government, political parties, and leading figures in academia, industry, and research, from Taiwan to the United States, Canada, Japan, and mainland China. At a meeting on June 24 this year, experts considered it a “Prophetic Book” that changed human life, and even the most important reference for research on E-Commerce, ICT, and CPS.

Fig 8: Book "Linda Din, A Lady of Rich Taiwan"

In 2003, as SARS spread across the world, the Australian government invited Linda Din to serve as an APEC speaker in Thailand, where she proposed “Global Channel-TES” to address the needs of SME exporters. Linda Din introduced her “Linhorn Indicator, A=C/GDP=0.36A" as the ideal value for achieving a society in which “the people, enterprises, and government” all win to possible trinity. She especially highlighted TES’s transaction tool — the “contactless TranSmart chip card,” designed to create a universal cashless system, bringing safety and hygiene, and known as the “Hygiene Initiative.” The ministers praised it as “the best guide for entrepreneurship for 240 million people” (Joint Statement Article 7), and also helped secure the “Best Practice for the Finance Chain” to be held in Taipei.

Fig 9: APEC 2003 Proposal to attain the Best Practice Policy

In 2004, the cartel group mobilized all public power from "the MOEA, the National Taxation Bureau, the police, the Investigation Bureau, and the district prosecutors’ office" to fabricate baseless charges and ravage the “Mother of E-Commerce” until she collapsed. Yet the “Cashless Economy” had already begun to sprout and blossom worldwide. In 2008, the Control Yuan launched an investigation under the pretext of vindication; President Wang Chien-Shien classified the investigation report as “confidential until August 16, 2017.” If TES were mentioned again during that period, the original creator would face seven years in prison. After the declassification in 2017, we contacted a top legal and IP consulting firm, and in 2024 they said, “We don’t dare cross Disney!” The patent I had opposed all along had turned into a pile of waste paper.

Fig 10: Expired waste patent certificates

Since the beginning of my entrepreneurship, I have gone from land-based products to outer space, without ever applying for patents. Yet I created Taiwan’s precision industry and New York’s Blackstone Angel Fund from nothing, and laid the foundation for global 3C and EC. I once warned: “If the foolish men had the ability to write patent applications, they would have gone to write them long ago!” In 1997, APEC delegates from the U.S. and Canada encouraged Linda Din to apply for a U.S. invention patent — “US6304796B1” —and during the cartel’s rampage, it was dismantled by MNCs into hundreds of patents for huge profits.

In 2006, in order to learn about the progress of the best example, “Global Channel-TES,” the Australian government wanted an update. I went back and forth between the Sofitel Hotel in Hanoi, NCC, and the Melia Hotel, distributing 4,000 color brochures and 400 booklets, and won consensus in assistance of satellite support. After the meeting, I went to the United States to promote upgrading shop installations of “TRD” (Toller—Fig 3) into “eStores,” and the cashless economy gradually became the mainstream method of transaction settlement.

Fig 11: Securing satellite support at APEC 2006

In 2009, I was invited to Singapore APEC to contribute the way of “Rebuilding the Global Economy.” I proposed “IIA-TES,” reiterated the importance of “AICT,” and emphasized issuing "1.7 billion TranSmart Chip Cards" to build an 85 billion social responsibility investment (SRI) fund — see the "Bay Area World Journal" report in Fig 11.

Fig 12: Bay Area World Journal report

After the public-health catastrophe of COVID-19, the world began to revolve entirely around TES; many vulnerable people used “t-e-s” to break through the limits of time (t) and space (s), earning global money from home and getting through difficult times, while humanity also entered the age of artificial intelligence (AI). The “cashless” system (C), originally invented to solve structural social problems, has since accelerated like a runaway train toward “C ≧ 200 trillion U.S. dollars.” At the meeting on June 24, experts worriedly said, “The catastrophe has already begun; a braking system is needed!” That is exactly the “AICT Initiative” we proposed in Hanoi and Singapore APEC years ago.

Fig 13: AICT Control Center

The “AICT Initiative” requires the establishment of an “AICT Control Center.” Fig 12 shows that AICT → TSCM → eStore → Logistics → Suppliers → Satellite Systems — this is a “Control Logic.” It is like building a gate first at the point where flash floods break out, to verify that the control logic works. In recent years, the global technology industry has already moved toward integration in the directions of AI Agent, AIoT, Autonomous Supply Chain, Digital Twin, and intelligent logistics. The “AICT Control Center” only needs to integrate satellite positioning, information telemetry, and intelligent decision-making into a closed loop; this matches the economic logic of “building the gate first, rather than building the entire reservoir first.”

At the same time, AICT is the “steering wheel, accelerator, and braking system” of the new technology economy. Digital Twin is responsible for seeing, LLM for thinking, AI Agent for acting, and AICT for controlling. Looking back at APEC 1998, we proposed “Steering the Global E-Commerce,” hoping that humanity could break through the limitations of time and space. More than twenty years later, as AI, Digital Twin, AI Agent, and global supply chains gradually merge, the “AICT Control Center” should also be upgraded from “Steering” — so that AI can not only think, but also safely and reliably serve the real world.

In fact, the evolution is clear: from steering e-commerce in 1998, to the Control Center in 2006, to the safe governance of the AI physical economy in 2026. Most importantly, “AICT” is positioned as the control hub of the AI physical economy, helping the entire industrial chain improve decision-making efficiency, reduce costs, strengthen resilience, and build intelligent governance capabilities.

The partners and industrial ecosystem that can be supported are summarized as follows:

1. New technology economy systems, including artificial intelligence (AI), large language models (LLM), AI agents, Digital Twin, cloud platforms, edge computing, data centers, information security, software development, and system integrators (SI).

2. Semiconductors and smart hardware, including semiconductors, AI chips, sensors, RFID/NFC, communication equipment, IoT devices, robots, automation equipment, and smart terminals.

3. Communications and space technology, including satellite communications, 5G/6G, fiber-optic networks, GPS/GNSS, telemetry, geographic information systems (GIS), space technology, all-terrain vehicles (F-Car), and drones.

4. Manufacturing and industry, including smart manufacturing, precision machinery, automated factories, industrial control, industrial AI, energy equipment, power equipment, and building materials equipment.

5. Logistics and transportation, including global logistics, warehousing, ports, sea freight, air freight, rail transport, trucking, fleet management, autonomous logistics, and smart transportation.

6. Business and circulation, including e-commerce, eStore, retail, chain distribution, vending systems, POS, payment services, payment platforms, membership platforms, and marketing platforms.

7. Finance and insurance, including accounting, law, banking, insurance, FinTech, payment systems, digital asset management, risk management, ESG finance, and social responsibility investment (SRI).

8. Healthcare and daily life, including care technology, medical logistics, medical AI, long-term care, public health, pharmaceutical delivery, biotech, and health management.

9. Agriculture and food, including smart agriculture, food supply chains, cold-chain logistics, fisheries, animal husbandry, and agricultural product distribution.

10. Energy and environment, including power dispatch, renewable energy, energy storage, smart grids, water resource management, carbon management, circular economy, and ESG.

11. Government and public infrastructure, including smart cities, national infrastructure, customs, ports, disaster prevention centers, fire services, defense logistics, public safety, and digital governance.

12. Education and research, including universities, research institutions, AI research centers, innovation incubators, international cooperation platforms, professional consulting, law, accounting, and intellectual property management.

In short, “AICT” is not designed to serve only one industry. It is a cross-industry, cross-supply-chain, and cross-government platform. Any organization involved in AI decision-making, Digital Twin, intelligent logistics, supply chain management, financial payments, public governance, and critical infrastructure could become an important partner in the AICT ecosystem, supporting the control hub of the entire AI economy. Its goal is not to replace existing enterprises, but to become a common platform that connects industries, coordinates systems, and improves overall operational efficiency and resilience.

Economic Scale Analysis

We once participated in the 1997 APEC meeting as members of an "International Advisory Expert Group" and proposed the establishment of an “Economic Institute” (EI). Today, the AICT Initiative must likewise establish an “AICT Academy” (AA) to promote the necessary education and training programs and seize the vast business opportunities. Before that, it should first be launched in the form of an “AICT Club,” bringing together like-minded people to achieve something larger.

The estimated serviceable market for AICT is about “USD 5 trillion to USD 10 trillion.” This is not the revenue that can be generated this year, but rather the "Total Addressable Market" (TAM) it faces.

When the first "AICT Control Center" is truly completed in the future, it can be extended to “AI logistics, AI ports, AI supply chains, AI energy, AI transportation, AI disaster prevention, AI defense logistics, and AI medical delivery.” This means it is not ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), but the next-generation AI Operating System.

1. If a platform commission model is adopted

Assumption: global cashless transactions total “C ≧ US$200 trillion.” If AICT manages only 1% of that in the future, or US$2 trillion in transactions, and if platform revenue is only 0.1%, then annual revenue would be US$2 billion. If it manages 10% of transaction volume, or US$20 trillion, then revenue would be US$20 billion per year; if the fee is 0.3%, it could reach US$60 billion per year. However, these are all scenario analyses and do not guarantee achievement. Actual revenue depends on adoption rate, business model, regulations, and market competition.

2. If adopted as a national-level project

For example, if each country builds one AICT Control Center and the average cost per country is US$2 billion, then 100 countries would mean a US$200 billion project. If annual maintenance is added later, at US$200 million per country per year, then 100 countries would mean US$20 billion per year.

3. If TES eStore is added

We once proposed a 30-country market at APEC and listed 17 major product categories that could circulate through TES in the future. If there were 1 million eStores, and each store generated annual GMV of US$1 million, that would amount to US$1 trillion in merchandise transactions. If the platform commission were 1%, that would be US$10 billion per year. In fact, our proposal was 5.15 million eStores at APEC 2003.

Overall, if AICT Control Center ultimately realizes the complete closed-loop architecture shown in Fig 12, namely “satellite → AICT → TSCM → eStore → logistics → suppliers → AICT,” and is adopted by multinational enterprises and governments, its business scale can be roughly divided into three levels:

1) Serviceable market (TAM): about US$5 trillion to US$10 trillion.

2) Potential annual revenue after a large platform matures: about US$10 billion to US$100 billion per year, depending on transaction scale and pricing model.

3) If it develops into a transnational AI infrastructure and national-level platform, the total business value of accumulated engineering, platform licensing, and long-term operations could reach the scale of hundreds of billions of dollars.

The TES schematic diagram, quickly created at a dining table in Zhonghe in 1986, highlights the "TranSmart Power Chip" (TPC)—capable of storing number, text, voice, and image, leading to the emergence of C-Phone, TRD, VAM, and eStore, creating enormous business opportunities. When the AICT control center is established, TPC will also enter advanced research to improve current AI shortcomings and create a safer and three-dimension world for mankind.

Fig 14: Application Scope of TPC

From an overall perspective, the greatest value of the “AICT Club” does not lie in selling products, but in building a “new business mechanism operating platform” that can connect existing infrastructure. If its technical feasibility can be demonstrated and successful pilot cases established in the future, its business model will become a model for others to follow — a transferable paradigm, rather than an ordinary information system.

Peter Li-Chang Kuo, the author created Taiwan's Precision Industry in his early years. Peter was a representative of the APEC CEO Summit and an expert in the third sector. He advocated "anti-corruption (AC)/cashless/e-commerce (E-Com)/ICT/IPR/IIA-TES / Micro-Business (MB)…and etc." to win the international bills and regulations.