The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a plan by the Ministry of Economic Affairs to stimulate domestic consumption by giving stores in commercial districts that offer mobile services more than NT$1.5 billion (US$47.7 million) in subsidies.
The plan aims to encourage stores to provide customers with convenient mobile services and to offer customers using those services cash rewards, while helping the stores promote themselves.
About 10,000 retailers, eateries and restaurants nationwide would each receive subsidies totaling NT$30,000 when they subscribe to mobile services, Small and Medium Enterprise Administration Director-General Ho Chin-tsang (何晉滄) told a news conference at the Executive Yuan.
Participating stores would receive on-site instructions from mobile service companies collaborating with the government on online meal orders, mobile payments, electronic coupons and how to use apps to target customers and improve business, Ho said.
The ministry has budgeted NT$990 million toward achieving this goal, he said, adding that the project would last three years.
To entice more people to use mobile payments, the ministry and service providers would offer people using mobile payment services monthly cash rewards of up to NT$1,000 per person, he said.
The government and service providers would each provide 10 percent of the reward, he said, adding that the ministry has earmarked NT$440 million for the policy.
The government would also give each of the nation’s roughly 200 commercial districts NT$300,000 to come up with methods to promote themselves, Ho said, adding that the ministry has earmarked NT$60 million for the policy.
The government hopes that the plan will spur domestic demand and popularize mobile payments, the ministry said.
The plan is estimated to cost about NT$1.58 billion in total, including training and logistics, Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Chuan-neng (林全能) he said, adding that it is expected to generate profits of NT$8.7 billion.
Asked if the plan was announced in response to a travel ban China placed on the nation or was politically motivated, Lin said that it had been in the making for “quite some time.”
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