Premier Wu Den yih (吳敦義) yesterday promised to create a better environment for small and medium businesses in a meeting with the winners of the National Outstanding Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Award.
Winners of the 11th National Award for Outstanding SMEs, awarded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, met Wu at the Executive Yuan.
Wu said the entrepreneurs deserved praise for their hard work and perseverance and that their stories had set an example for other businesses.
Johnson Young (楊喬生), who runs three motel chains in the US with assets estimated at up to US$50 million, said he started his business with just US$500 in 1975.
Before that, he worked as a cashier and cleaned floors after leaving a teaching position in Taiwan to work in the US.
Hsu Chung-cheng (許忠政), whose company is the biggest exporter of American ginseng, urged the government to help overseas Taiwanese companies expand their market share in Taiwan.
“In light of the fierce competition, our market share in the country has dropped below 2 percent,” Hsu said.
He also expressed regret that the awards had not been conferred by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Wu said Ma’s schedule had been tight recently, but that the government would step up efforts to improve the business environment in terms of fighting counterfeiting and improving protection of intellectual property rights.
RSS