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.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
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