On May 16th, STARTBOARD was honored to be invited to participate in “Startup Genome by Ministry of Science and Technology, “ held by Ministry of Economic Affairs and Dr. Zhan Yijian. Here’re some highlights of important remarks during the event. The host of this session is Dr. Zhan Yijian, the ambassador of the startup ecosystem. The ambassador’s duty is mainly to enhance the international visibility of our entrepreneurial ecosystem, looking forward to the activation of the current ecosystem.
At the beginning of the meal, Tu Junyi, the Deputy Director of the Ministry of Science and Technology, delivered an opening speech.
The deputy director introduced the spirits and service projects of the Ministry of Science and Technology and explained the plans that have been promoted recently. The Ministry of Science and Technology clings on to the concept of “commercialization of scientific research products” and established TTA (Taiwan Tech Arena) in the Taipei Arena. TTA’s success is so evident that TTA is ranked at the first in Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), published by Babson College and London Business School.
In addition, the Deputy Director also mentioned that it is hoped that the accelerators of different industries will be able to promote the prosperity of the ecosystem at the front-end of innovation, and the government and enterprises can join hand in hand, working together to increase the international visibility. The event was initiated by Dr. Zhan and hopefully there’ll be more and more similar opportunities so that relevant regulations and environment in Taiwan can be improved in a perfect manner.
Dr. Zhan Yijian also gave a speech to introduce the event and visions and direction of this series. This event concentrated on startup accelerator. Hopefully through the discussions and exchanges, such institutions may play a pivotal role in our startup ecosystem. There’re two distinctive topics, which were the role and positions of the accelerator on a global scale as well as the differences and demands of related policies across the country and over the world. Last but not least, they also well embraced opinions from industries.
Many may know him as the co-founder of AppWorks; nonetheless, he has been joining VC from 2004, making devotions to accelerators, and thereby establishing AppWorks. Additionally, he also spared no efforts and participated in several internet and biotech startup programs. When it comes to why he was selected as the ambassador, he stated with a radiant smile “ I’m quite zealous about sharing startup issues with people.”By sharing his value, he also highlighted “It’s quite significant to steer startup industry in the right direction.”
Dr. Zhan hoped that this year, the bond between the public and private sectors can be strengthened. This issue has been ringing in his head for a long time. Additionally, he also raised some questions for us to think on deeply, such as “Has Taiwan’s entrepreneurial ecosystem become better these years?” “Do we need more accelerators?”, etc. By elaborating on cases in Silicon Valley, Boston and European countries, he gave a big hand to help participants figure those issues out.
For the starters, we go to the definition – “ What’s a good ecosystem?” Silicon Valley is the origin of startup accelerators. It’s of high quality and quantity by combining numerous elements such as top-notch engineers, angel investors, serial entrepreneurs and venture capitals. As for Boston, it put the emphasis on cooperation between the government and research institutes so as to transform it into a city well focusing on the startup industry. Also, Belgium makes good use of its industry-academia cooperation, thereby attracting international talents. The government of Israel, on the other hand, promotes its nurturing program to create high margin and cause for investment.
In each country, there exist various strengths for Taiwan to learn from. As for Taiwan, our biggest chance lies in AI as well as smart manufacturing.
Each country’s ecosystem has its own advantages and can be used by Taiwan to learn from it. Taiwan’s strongest advantages and opportunities are in the two major areas of AI and smart manufacturing. At present, there are several national accelerators to foster new energy, from the technical supply end to the market estuary, accelerating the potential of new market potential. Support and get investment.
In this era of social media, accelerators all around the globe have the desire to connect with each other; therefore, it’s a good opportunity that Taiwan cannot miss out on. Dr. Zhan calls for everyone’s attention to develop a community of startup ecosystems around the world.