Congratulations on LONG Automatic Machinery Company for being Rewarded with 「D & B SME 2014 Elite 1000」!

The vice president Wu, Den-Yih headed to Sunrise Golf & Country Club to participate in the award ceremony of 「D & B SME 2014 Elite 1000」 tonight(2nd September). This was not only to affirm the excellent performance of the awarded candidates but also to show the attitude of how the government supports the domestic SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises).

　The vice president said during his speech, “American company Dun & Bradstreet has been operated for 173 years since it was founded in 1841. There were four American presidents served in this company during this period, which represents that Dun & Bradstreet is one of the most important companies doing certification in the world. Moreover, this company now operates 246 branches in 214 countries with 4700 employees. At the same time, the company owns over 200 million companies’ information in its business database, in which 1.5 million information is updated every day, in providing critical business information for enterprises in the world.”

　The vice president indicated, there are almost 1.3 million and 6 thousands SMEs in Taiwan, which accounts for 97.67% of all the enterprises in the country. They create roughly 8.5 million job opportunities, and contribute to the export value worth 300 billion US dollars. Especially, the awarded 1000 SMEs has contributed more than 100 billion US dollars, which is very worthy of reward.

　The vice president also emphasized that the awarded enterprises had gone through a very critical evaluation process, which includes requirements of 3-year in a row with positive profit, yearly income over 0.5 million US dollars, no deficit record and good credit. These criteria indicate that there was no subjective element, but with objective precision.

When it comes to the actions regarding the government’s support of domestic SMEs, vice president pointed out, in the past years, there were only two policies which are 《Investment Encouragement Policy》and 《Promotion of Industry Upgrade Policy》 and only concentrated and benefitial to high-tech industries. In order to make SMEs and traditional companies acquire equal and reasonable treatment, in 2010 the government passed 《Industry Innovation Policy》,which takes the experience of Singapore tax reform as reference along with modifies the 24th conditions of 《Income Tax Policy》, reducing the profit business income tax from 25% to 17%. At the meanwhile, in 2012, Ministry of Economic Affairs promoted the policy of "Manufacturing industry service-oriented, service industry technology-oriented and internationalized and traditional industry feature-distinguishing", from which to achieve the economic strategy of “Strengthen Taiwan, Link Asia and Pacific countries and Distribute World”.

　Finally, the vice president reaffirmed the performance of the awarded enterprises, and delivered his expectation of the companies to be prosperous in the future.

　Other than the vice president, other related people including Yeh Yun-Long, the director of SME department in Ministry of Economic; Arun Khana, the CEO of Asia area in American company Dun & Bradstreet; and Sun, Wei-Jhen, the general manager of Taiwan branch, also attended the award ceremony.

Translated by Lin, Yu-Min
Article source: Office of the President, Taiwan Sept. 2, 2014
http://www.president.gov.tw/Default.aspx?tabid=131&itemid=33146&rmid=514