Twelve local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and six overseas Taiwanese businesses yesterday received National Awards for their outstanding performance from the Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday.
Among the 12 winning SMEs were Sheh Fung Screws Co (世豐螺絲廠公司), Hightech Electronic Products Tech Co (東林科技) and Tung Yu Hydraulic Machinery Co (東繁油壓機械).
During his opening remarks, Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) vowed that the government would provide SME credit guarantees of up to NT$6 billion (US$184.2 million) next year while boosting loans to SMEs to NT$300 billion a year, which is equivalent to one-tenth of the nation’s total NT$3 trillion loan balance.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday lauded the resilience of domestic SMEs, which he called a pillar to social stability.
Ma said, that there were 1.24 million SMEs in Taiwan, which account for 98 percent of all businesses here and take up 77 percent of the nation’s labor force.
He also reiterated confidence in the economy, saying the nation’s fundamentals were sound despite the global financial turbulence.
Taiwan has US$250 billion in foreign reserves and more than US$12,000 in GDP per capita, which lags only behind Hong Kong and Singapore in Asia.
The six overseas award-winning companies are Dental Implant Institute (美國拉斯維加植牙醫學中心), Asian Legend Inc (味香村連鎖飲食企業集團), Lightel Technologies Inc (萊特爾科技), Dallas/Fort Worth Technology Inc (美國達福科技), Chiu-Nichi Agro Resources Phil, Inc (綠源農業資源) and Telamon Corp (德利盟).
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