The Taipei City Government is to establish an angel investment fund of NT$2 billion (US$71.85 million) to be used over five years to foster the growth of innovative industries, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said on Wednesday last week.
Ko said that Taiwan’s industrial sector was mostly comprised of original equipment manufacturing, but such practices could not indefinitely support Taiwan’s gross national income.
The Startup@Taipei office has assisted more than 30,000 start-up inquiries, provided NT$1.98 billion in start-up funding and helped negotiate more than NT$2.5 billion in start-up loans since 2015. To go beyond this success, the city government is to establish angel investment funds directly, Ko said.
Start-up investments are to take the form of stock ownership, Ko said, adding this method demonstrates responsible politics.
The Taipei City Ordinance for Receiving, Safekeeping, and Using Industry Development Funds (台北市產業發展基金收支保管及運用自治條例) was forwarded to the Taipei City Council for deliberation earlier this year, Ko said.
Taipei Department of Economic Development Commissioner Lin Chung-chieh (林崇傑) said that current subsidies only provide a single person or organization a one-time maximum subsidy of NT$5 million.
The ordinance would allow the government to collect some profit, which could then be invested in other start-ups, Lin said, adding that the funds would target technology and biotech companies.
The funds would be directed mostly to companies in Taipei, he said, adding that the city government would sell its stock within seven to 10 years after the investment pays for itself.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
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