The Legislative Yuan yesterday inaugurated a council for small business and start-up development composed of lawmakers from all four represented parties.
As of the end of May, there were 1.59 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Taiwan, comprising 99 percent of all businesses, said Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Chiu Chen-yuan (邱臣遠), who is to chair the Small, Medium and New Enterprise Development Council.
They make up about half of all business volume and employ more than 80 percent of the workforce, he said.
However, SMEs only last for 13 years on average, Chiu said, adding that it is important for the government to better support their growth.
The council therefore aims to support economic prosperity by helping SMEs develop, Chiu said.
It would do this by facilitating communication between lawmakers and SMEs, responding to their needs, promoting related legislation and urging the government to formulate pragmatic policies to benefit SMEs and start-ups, he said.
As the government is restructuring, Chiu said he supports upgrading the Small and Medium Enterprise Administration under the Ministry of Economic Affairs into a bureau so it can better lead policy, allocate sufficient budgets and facilitate cooperation.
Legislative Yuan Secretary-General Lin Jih-jia (林志嘉), who attended the inauguration on behalf of Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫?), thanked Chiu for bringing together legislators from across party lines to form the council.
“Matters of national development are worth banding together for,” Lin said.
Under Chiu’s leadership, the council is to have four deputy chairs from each party: Hsieh Yi-fong (謝衣鳳) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) of the Democratic Progressive Party, Ann Kao (高虹安) of the TPP and Claire Wang (王婉諭) of the New Power Party.
Wang said her years working in the tech industry gave her an intimate understanding of the vitality of the industry that she views as Taiwan’s most important resource.
As the government faces certain limitations in the international arena, “it is through the collective effort of industry that Taiwan can truly go global,” she said.
“SMEs are the backbone of Taiwan’s economy,” Kao said. “They are indispensable to the nation’s economic development.”
The council is to overcome the limitations of party politics to speak out for SMEs and start-ups, Chung said, adding that it would employ innovative thinking to tackle problems facing small businesses.
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