July 18, 2005
The
MOEA is wrapping up details of the Commercial Research and Development Guidance Regulations and expects to begin taking applications in September. These regulations will provide subsidies and financing for commercial businesses that invest in research and development for new services, new business models, new marketing strategies and new commercial technologies.
Department of Commerce officials point out that, while the government's Challenge 2008 program calls for raising Taiwan's total
R&D expenditures to 3% of
GDP, the nation has only reached a level of around 2.5% so far. The department says that the government in the past has provided less support for
R&D in the service sector than in the manufacturing sector and that offering more assistance to commercial operations for
R&D will help the government achieve its
R&D target under the "Challenge 2008" program. However, as the scale of the service sector is too broad, the
MOEA has chosen to focus initially on promoting commercial
R&D.
According to the current draft of the regulations, the types of commercial operations that are to be eligible for these
R&D incentives include wholesalers, retailers, distributors, eating and drinking establishments, management and consulting firms, import-export companies, ecommerce enterprises, conference and exhibition enterprises, advertisers, commercial designers and commercial service-oriented franchises.
The
MOEA intends to distribute
NTD 43 million in subsidies under this program this year, helping twenty to thirty enterprises. In 2006, the program's budget will be raised to
NTD 200 million and its scope will be expanded to include all enterprises in the services sector. It is estimated that this expansion will increase the number of companies the program can support to 100 to 150.
These commercial
R&D regulations are being formulated based on the government's existing
R&D incentive regulations for the manufacturing sector.
(Central News Agency)
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