Yea, if only I can find someone who will give me a small amount of money to guide me in the right direction to make a positive social impact. They can appoint a marketer to guide me in this, and help me modify my products or services to make it more marketable. In the end this would create jobs, not just for myself but perhaps to kickstart other Taiwanese into exploring other hobbies than staring at a phone or running coffee shops?
Isn’t Grab a Singapore company anyway.
Singapore has access to lots of capital and is the usual base for SEA market.
But they pay way more in the US and offer really great benefits. Why leave that just to come here?
Elextronics and IT are already tariff-exempt under the WTO.
Hmm…I’m thinking of getting a PhD in the life sciences. Getting ideas.
Did gogoro raise most of their capital from Taiwanese investors?
I know HTC contributed part of it, but I’m sure they got MIT (the school, not the dumb Taiwan acronym) connections.
What large, indigenous tech company does Singapore have?
HTC (Wang) I believe…Maybe many others .
First $100 million came from Taiwan.
Next $380 from abroad, including Al Gore, Temasek (Singapore), Sumitomo, and Panasonic for the battery.
Grab
Garena/Sea
Shopee
Singapore startups have easy access to capital with it being a finance hub
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Grab was founded in Malaysia and moved to Singapore in 2014.
Singapore is a base in large part because the government created the environment. Taiwan has been talking about becoming a finance hub for years and has little to show for it.
Maybe it’s not realistic for Taipei to become Singapore or Hong Kong, but it could be much more than it is. Just look at how hard it is for individual foreigners to open a bank account and get a credit card.
Do business here? Absolutely. Start and domicile a business here? Nah.
Once in a while the TW gov makes statements about being a regional financial hub to challenge HK, SG, Shanghai or Tokyo… and I just laugh. For a start they need to make the TWD a freely convertible currency and possibly improve the English proficiency (Shanghai and Tokyo have large enough domestic markets to not require English proficiency)
… and yes, this too
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CNY is not freely convertible either. In fact there are limits on how much a foreigner can convert them. Shanghai is only a financial hub because everything is made in China.
But just realize that anytime a Taiwanese politician talks about wanting Taipei to be a financial hub, they are talking to Taiwanese people, not to foreigners. I do not think English proficiency is a priority in Taiwan seeing how bad they are (hire foreign clowns to pretend to teach English). China does the same too.
I think you missed the point I made about the huge domestic markets that both Shanghai and Tokyo enjoy
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Sorry missed this part of the comment. Agree… politicians trying to pump up dreams of the common folk
I disagree tbh, if Taiwanese had access to capital, more people would start companies. Startups in Taiwan have to fight for seed money. There is only so much a government can do, and if anything the Taiwan government is already too much involved.
The government can only do so much, if startups cant get investment, how can they do anything large-scale? Taiwanese are entrepreneurial.
Taiwan cannot seriously be a financial hub because of the political situation, I dont think anyone seriously is proposing that. And I dont think the government has seriously been trying that.
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Being an R&D Hub is more important than being a finance hub.
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QFT
Apart from the massive problem of dealing with banks in Taiwan , foreigners without Taiwanese family or dual citizenship are at a huge disadvantage in Taiwan.
The language, the insular culture, the weird reception foreigners get when they walk into many meetings , or novel situations (where Taiwanese often desperately try to look for another Taiwanese or Huaqiao as an intermediary ) and of course the lack of political and business connections .
Doesn’t mean you can’t do well but foreigners targeting the local market here , it’s really tough. Even for Taiwanese it’s really tough as many markets are stagnant in Taiwan (population is declining ).
Any foreigners (non Hua Qiao/Taiwanese ) that make it in Taiwan, in the LOCAL MARKET serious hats off to them because they have to wade through a lot of nonsense.
There’s tons of capital in Taiwan. The problem is how it’s invested. There’s a lot the government can do in an effort to encourage the kind of investment that can help Taiwan move up the food chain.
In the US, the tax code is quite favorable for startup investments. One part of the tax code, for example, provides for very attractive tax benefits if you invest in certain small businesses.
I myself have saved high 6 figures USD in capital gains taxes from QSBS and know people who have saved millions of dollars.
The point is that government can create an environment that encourages certain kinds of investments without even having to get into the business of creating its own funds.
Sure. Taiwan is not going to be a financial hub like Singapore or Hong Kong. The geopolitical risk alone is too high.
But government can make it a much more favorable environment for new business formation and investment.
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DefInitely. I’d like to see a special program for attracting foreign IOT starts ups, visas, tax relief, the works. Are they doing that ? I don’t think so!
Your point about how the funds are invested is even more important given there’s a MASSIVE pool of capital here but they are reluctant to invest except in certain ‘safe’ areas . It would be good if you could get access to high level officials here and explain to them the benefits of operating the scheme you mentioned.
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