Taipei, Nov. 30 (CNA) The three-day “Meet Taipei” startup festival kicked off on Thursday, marking its 10th anniversary by welcoming more than 400 startup businesses and panels, as well as a record-high number of speakers from around the world.
“Here in Taiwan, we’re hosting a startup gathering that has attracted more than 100 foreign businesses,” Ho Fei-peng (何飛鵬), the president of event organizer Business Next Media said, noting this is in stark contrast to the venture capital downturn the world is experiencing in 2023.
Meet Taipei, a festival for startups to exchange ideas and connect with enterprises, research institutes and government officials in a bid to form an ecosystem for innovative new businesses to thrive, was first launched in 2014.
The festival is the largest of its kind in Asia and has attracted more than 3,350 local and 480 foreign startups over the past nine years.
Vice President Lai Ching-te (賴清德), who attended the event for the fourth time in the capacity of vice president, noted that even during COVID-19, “Meet Taipei did not stop, which is an achievement.”
Lai said he wants to continue improving Taiwan’s entrepreneurial environment, by prioritizing talent cultivation, access to capital and cutting red tape.
“Through public-private cooperation, we hope to turn Taiwan into an innovation hub within a decade by investing $150 billion per year in startups over the next five years and creating 20,000 new jobs,” Lai said.
Also looking firmly towards the future, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) echoed Lai’s sentiment, saying he envisions Taipei becoming a “founder-friendly city” by working with and learning from other major cities.
He recounted meetings with the mayors of Fukuoka and Seoul, and with Singapore’s education minister during which they exchanged ideas, adding that he and his team were always looking for opportunities to set up cooperation deals with cities to create cross-border startup-friendly environments.
Another goal is to transform Taipei into an “AI-driven smart city,” the mayor said, adding that the city has also hosted the Smart City Expo annually since 2014, which has attracted numerous foreign startups.
“We’re hoping that game-changing AI technology can spark solutions by startups to help improve life in our city,” he said.
This year’s expo is also hosting the “Taiwan-Japan Connecting Forum,” according to the organizer, which is supported by JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization) and Work Capital, a Japanese consulting firm that, according to its website, provides “comprehensive inbound support services for international companies looking to establishing a business presence in Japan.”
Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association Deputy Representative Takashi Hattori, who also spoke at the opening ceremony, said startups play a crucial role in tackling contemporary challenges.
“Both Taiwan and Japan are meeting challenges such as low birth rates, aging populations, and labor shortages. The urgency to boost industry intelligence and digital transformation has reached unprecedented levels,” he said, adding that startups could use innovative solutions to drive social and economic progress.
The Japanese government unveiled its “Startup Development Five-year Plan,” in 2022, which aims to increase investment in startups by tenfold, to 10 trillion yen (US$68 billion) by 2027, Hattori stated.
Since 2020, the association, in collaboration with JETRO and Taiwan Accelerator Plus, an international accelerator funded by Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs, “has been supporting Japanese startups in endeavors to commercialize their businesses in Taiwan,” the deputy representative said.
“The eight Japanese startups, not only set to exhibit but also pitch their ventures at this year’s Meet Taipei,” are a testament to that collaboration, he added.
The three-day event is held from Thursday to Saturday at TaiNex 2 in Taipei.