The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday said it would hold breakfast meetings with the business sector to better understand needs of old economy businesses and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
NDC Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) told reporters that the government already cooperates closely with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, but the council needs to listen more closely to SMEs and old economy businesses to understand how it can help them improve their operations.
On Thursday, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics reported that the nation’s GDP grew 3.97 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of this year, higher than its August forecast of 3.21 percent.
Photo: CNA
If GDP grows 1.12 percent in the fourth quarter as anticipated, Taiwan’s economic growth this year would be 4.1 percent, surpassing the agency’s previous forecast of 3.9 percent, the agency said.
That follows robust demand for emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence applications, it said.
However, the local economic recovery has been uneven, with old economy businesses lagging behind, indicating that not everyone would share equally in the benefits of a growing economy, the agency added.
A white paper released last year by the Small and Medium Enterprise and Startup Administration said that the number of SMEs in Taiwan surpassed 1.63 million in 2022, accounting for more than 98 percent of the nation’s businesses.
An SME is a business with paid-in capital of less than NT$100 million (US$3.13 million), far below that of TSMC, with paid-in capital of NT$259.33 billion.
“The government should pay more attention to what old economy industries and SMEs need, because it would help the government plan and execute economic projects more effectively,” Liu said. “Therefore, the NDC is planning breakfast meetings to collect opinions.”
In visiting companies outside Taipei, he and his colleagues heard different business opinions, which suggest the breakfast meetings would be helpful for the government in understanding different industries and what they need, he said.
The council plans to invite only seven representatives from SMEs and traditional industries to each breakfast meeting, to allow for in-depth discussions, it said.
The NDC said Liu would attend each meeting along with officials from the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
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