The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a development plan for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which includes preferential loans, tax incentives and digital transformation support.
The plan offers tax incentives for research and development, intellectual property rights, and employee expansion and salary raises, with the latter also opening the door to additional government subsidies.
Taiwan’s economic achievements and performance depend on its 1.63 million small businesses, which also contribute to the nation’s economic stability and well-being, Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) as saying during the Cabinet meeting.
Photo courtesy of the Executive Yuan
The plan is focused on helping SMEs expand their access to domestic and international markets, and support their transition to a digital economy and net zero emissions, Small and Medium Enterprise Startup Administration Director-General Lee Guann-jyh (李冠志) said.
The preferential loan program specifically targets SMEs with less than 30 employees, Lee said.
Taiwan has 1.43 million small businesses that have less than 30 employees, which account for 87 percent of all SMEs, Lee added.
The program offers subsidies of up to NT$100,000 (US$3,102) for SMEs that are undergoing digital transformation to help mitigate the impact of minimum wage increases and help cover the cost of training employees, he said.
If these businesses increase revenue and provide salary raises, they can receive additional subsidies, he added.
To encourage wage increases, the government is considering a fund that SMEs can access upon providing raises that could be worth NT$35 million at a low handling fee of 0.1 percent, Lee said.
The incentives are to be retroactive from Jan. 1 and continue until Dec. 31, 2033.
Additionally, the Ministry of Economic Affairs plans to incorporate tax incentives for industrial holding companies into amendments to the Statute for Industrial Innovation (產業創新條例), Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Chin-tsang (何晉滄) said.
These proposals were originally suggested by the National Development Council in hopes of supporting key manufacturing sectors, he added.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is
RSS