Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate, yesterday said that if elected he would expand financial support and loosen regulations to help the nation’s innovative start-ups grow.
Lai at a news conference at DPP headquarters in Taipei pledged to develop a “start-up ecosystem” that would provide a better environment for young people to develop their businesses.
Among Lai’s goals were he to become president would be to create 20,000 jobs among start-ups in five years and turn Taiwan into a major “exporter” of innovative solutions in a decade, but he provided little detail as to how he planned to reach those goals.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
His only specific promise was to provide seed funding through the National Development Fund and other funding programs, which already seems to be happening.
The National Development Fund currently provides angel funding to start-ups, which are defined as companies that have operated for less than five years with paid-in or fundraising capital not exceeding NT$100 million (US$3.09 million).
Acquiring early-stage capital is the most challenging task for young entrepreneurs and “strategic investments” by the government would help smooth their way as they start their businesses, Lai said.
He pledged NT$150 billion to finance the program and said the government would devise various investment strategies to manage different risks involving new and emerging businesses.
In 2018, when Lai was in charge of the executive branch of government as premier, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) pledged NT$10 billion in funding from the National Development Fund to support start-ups.
Government data showed that as of September 2020, the fund had poured approximately NT$1.63 billion into 114 start-ups.
Lai also said that his administration would loosen regulations to spur start-up development and attract global marketing executives to work in Taiwan.
His government would also encourage young Taiwanese entrepreneurs to go abroad for internships and other job opportunities to build their networks and get a better sense of global markets, he said.
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
RSS