President 
Lai Ching-te pledged annual funding to help Taiwan's businesses upgrade and transform as he received the newly installed board of the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce. He told the group that first-half economic growth reached 14.15%, the strongest showing for that period in half a century. From next year, NT$20 billion a year will go to helping small, medium and micro enterprises upgrade, CNA reported, while the Liberty Times headline on the speech put the annual sum at NT$25 billion.
Speaking at the Presidential Office, Lai said full-year growth is forecast to reach 11.05%, a 39-year high. Taiwan draws global attention because of long-accumulated industrial strength, he said, citing a recent CNN report that its fasteners, hand tools and plumbing hardware hold an irreplaceable place in global supply chains. The government's responsibility, he said, is to build an environment in which industries of every field and size can seize the chance to transform and grow.
After taking office in 2024 he launched a diversified revitalisation plan for small, medium and micro enterprises budgeted at more than NT$10 billion a year, and on the second anniversary of his inauguration this year he announced a fund on the scale of NT$100 billion, CNA reported. The government is also drafting an act on transforming and upgrading such enterprises so that support for them becomes institutional.
Economic development is not only about eye-catching numbers but about sharing the fruits of growth with society, Lai said. With next year's central government budget proposal balanced and involving effectively no new borrowing, every person will receive NT$10,000 in cash next year, he said, while a family-support policy aimed at the low birth rate pays a growth allowance of NT$5,000 a month to everyone aged 0 to 18.
Lai said an "AI new ten major constructions" programme rests on four foundations, CNA reported: training at least 500,000 people in AI applications by 2040, a national computing centre already launched at the Southern Taiwan Science Park, a sovereign AI data centre and a stable power supply. Its research will concentrate on quantum computing, silicon photonics and robotics, and one of its three goals is to help at least a million small, medium and micro enterprises go digital.
Figures referenced: Lai Ching-te. — JudgeMarket.
