The excellent results at this year's APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Global Challenge will help APEC member economies understand Taiwan's innovation potential, Premier Mao Chi-kuo stated at today's Cabinet meeting. He commended relevant staff members and winning teams for their hard work and outstanding performance at the event.
The premier made these remarks after he was briefed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) on the 2015 APEC Global Challenge achievements.
The MOEA's Small and Medium Enterprise Administration submitted a proposal at APEC to organize the APEC Global Challenge, and it was welcomed and supported by APEC members. The 2015 APEC Global Challenge was held October 19-20 at the Taipei New Horizon building. The MOEA, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Intel Corp. Taiwan, and Siemens Ltd. Taiwan co-hosted the event, which attracted the participation of more than 200 business elites, angel investors, venture capitalists, and industrial experts from both home and abroad.
Taiwan garnered six of the 10 awards granted, the MOEA pointed out. The six award-winning Taiwanese teams were iStaging, GHOSTA, Zuvio, Loopd, Sense-i and Docceo. The iStaging team captured the first-prize award of US$100,000 from Intel, marking the first time the championship honor remained in Taiwan. Moreover, the team won the chance to go to London to participate in Intel Challenge Up! Summit Europe, which will be held November 30 to December 1 this year. The Taiwanese team will thus be able to shine on the international stage.
The government has been promoting the innovation economy for several years, and in the past year it has exerted greater effort than ever, Mao stated. This past year the Executive Yuan set up an Innovation and Startups Taskforce in order to systematically develop Taiwan's innovation and startup environment. The premier hopes various ministries will make good use of this cross-ministerial platform when carrying out related activities so that all such resources can be pooled to benefit one another.
The MOEA stated that it will continue to consolidate startup incubation assistance services by deepening foundations in both the physical and online worlds, setting up related platforms to raise global exposure, bolstering innovation as well as research and development capabilities, assisting startups in acquiring funding in their early stages of development, and harmonizing laws and regulations to make a sound innovation ecosystem.
In addition, the National Development Fund has agreed to increase investment in a program for small and medium-size enterprises with a quota of NT$2.4 billion (US$73.17 million). It will also channel venture capital to startups in their early stages of development.