President Ma Ying-jeou says small and midsize businesses play a major role in Taiwan’s economy. Ma highlighted their role in an award ceremony for small to midsize business leaders on Tuesday.
Taiwan has 1.33 million small to midsize companies, and they make up 98% of businesses in the nation. They employ nearly 8.6 million people and have a gross output of over NT$11.3 trillion (US$356 million).
The president has promoted policies beneficial for small to midsize businesses like reducing taxes on business revenues so that they are one of the world’s lowest. The World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index ranked Taiwan 19 out of 189 economies. Taiwan came ahead of Japan, Canada, Switzerland and other developed nations.
He assured small to midsize businesses that signing cross-strait agreements would be beneficial to them as well.
Ma said, "Many people say that our exchanges with China only benefits big companies and not small and midsize companies. But this is not possible because small to midsize companies make up 98% of our companies. They cannot be in the minority. So we should explain that these policies will benefit small, midsize and large companies."
President Ma said Taiwan’s economy needs to be more open. Taiwan needs to sign the cross-strait trade in services and trade in goods agreement as soon as possible. The government is also working towards other bilateral free trade agreements and entering regional trade pacts like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).