different awards: The Best Incubation Center Award, the Best EnterpriseConsultation Award, the Most Characteristic Award, the Most Progress Award,and the Most Potential Award”, said Robert Lai, Director General of theSmall & Medium Enterprise Administration, in the opening ceremony.

There are 3 principles behind the awards: creativeness, innovation andentrepreneurial spirit. Facing challenges from newly emerged economies, thenation's industrial competitiveness lies in these three principles. The knowl-edge and consultation the incubation centers have provided have helped thegrowth of countless entrepreneurs.The government will make further invest-ment to help Taiwan become a world class technology and knowledge con-centrated economy.

Award Recipients

In the Taiwan SME Innovation Award, 31 companies were awarded: AcmeMachinery Industry Co., Ltd., Three Royal Chemical Company, AtopTechnologies, Dasheng Shutter Industr ial, Hiwin Mikrosystem Corp.,Conquer Electronics, Vasstek International Corporation, Cherng DahTechnologies Corp., Pack'n Save Packaging Design, Union-Tech Technology,Maxigen Biotech, Lumos Technology, Wuli Agriculture Machine, LTWTechnology, Awin Diamond Technology Corporation, Speech Message,Easywell Water Systems, Bionet Corp., China May Aluminum, Prit Biotech,IMU Solutions, Vivotek, Ag Pro Technology Corporation, YesturnkeyTechnology, XPEC Entertainment, E Tai Enterpr ise, Sliding BikeDevelopment, Radiant Innovation, Rules Technology, DMP Electronics, andGood Biotech.

In the Business Startup Award, 12 companies were awarded: IMU SolutionsInc., R2D Technology, LinkWin Technology, Photoez Digital, Zu Jin TangCo., Shi Wai Taoyuan Persimmon Co., DotMore Media, Magic Balloon,Bonny-Ann, Kyoritsu Optronics, CoCoBox, and Vastitute.

Outstanding Incubation Centers

The Best Incubation Center Award was given to N.T.U. InnovationIncubation Center. As the top university in Taiwan, this incubation center is

BY JACK HSU

T h i r t y - o n eTaiwanese SMEInnovation Awardwinners, 12 BusinessStartup Award recip-ients and 5 outstand-ing incubation cen-ters stepped forwardto be honored by theMOEA onNovember 24 at theKaohsiung BusinessExhibition Center. Itwas a 3-in-1 event asall three awards weregiven on the same day.

“Innovation plays a key role in sustainable business management today, assmall and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Taiwan are facing challenges fromnewly emerging economies. The Small and Medium Enterpr isesAdministration has always put SMEs as a priority of our agenda. We haveestablished incubation centers to help new enterprises through the beginningstages, in which they need resources, knowledge, facilities, manpower, andconsultation. Currently, we have established 100 incubation centers, and incu-bated more than 2,800 enterprises, 35 of which are now publicly listed com-panies. It is thanks to our incubation centers that SMEs in Taiwan can performso well. This year, we purposely presented five incubation centers with five

Government Awards SMEs, StartupBusinesses and Incubation Centers

Hou Tsung-huei

An SME manager receives an award from MOEA Deputy Minister Shih Yen-shiang.

incubation alliance for business women. Approximately 300 career womenhave been trained.

The Most Potential Award went to the Innovation Incubation Center ofNational Chiayi University. Established in January 2005 and supported by theSmall and Medium Administration this incubation center has helped in thetransformation, evolution and innovation of local industries in the Yunlin,Chiayi and Tainan regions. One example was the "Coffee Experts Workshop",

held for innovation of thelocal coffee industry. In thefuture, the center hopes tohelp its incubated companiesto lead trends in local indus-try.

The incubation centersshould continue to be men-tors for Taiwanese SMEs.Facing competition fromnewly emerged economies,Taiwanese SMEs arerequired to innovate interms of management andresearch/development. Tomake it possible, the incuba-tion centers are the behind-the-scene contributors whohave invested huge effort.With the altruistic efforts ofthe incubation centers,Taiwanese SMEs will alwaysbe competitive in the globalmarket.

the nation's best academic resource for the research and development of start-ups. The N.T.U Innovation Incubation Center has the most academicresources, with approximately 1,000 professors from various departments.

Since 2002, the center has cooperated with its affiliate "N.T.U InnovationIncubation Incorporated" so that a corporate management system has beenimplemented to further enhance incubation performance. In 2006, the centerestablished an N.T.U Innovation Incubation Center Fantasy Land, as the dis-play hall for products of the center's incubated companies.

The Best Enterprise Consultation Award went to the NTHU InnovationIncubator. NTHU has great survival rates of newly established, incubatedcompanies since it has optimum industry-academic links due to its locationnearby the Hsinchu Science Park. Therefore, the NTHU InnovationIncubator has professional consultation in technology, financing, capital man-agement, legal issues and marketing.

Since its establishment, this incubator has incubated 77 companies, with 55of them already graduated from incubation. The survival rate of graduatedcompanies is 94.55%, indicating that companies graduated from this incubatorhave stronger adaptability. Seven graduated companies have even establishedplants in the Hsinchu Science Park.

The ATIT Innovation Incubation Center won the Most CharacteristicAward as a newcomer in the incubator category. Established 2004 the ATIT isthe first agricultural research institute to enter the incubating field and con-centrate on animal technology, medicine, health foods and cosmetics, bio-information, organic and environmental resources.

The National Open University Innovation Incubation Center received theMost Progress Award.The center progressively targets innovation in the serv-ice industry.

Within four years, this center has incubated 11 companies and created 40job opportunities. Incubated companies have enjoyed an increase in monthlyrevenue of NT$ 2.1 million as well as a rise in yearly revenue of NT$ 25 mil-lion.

Another special achievement of this center is that it has established anHou Tsung-huei

Members of the Women's Business Incubation Alliance give outbrochures.