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III and Canada Wavefront Accelerator Sign MOU to gear up the Cross Nation Collaboration for the creative Digital Industries
Date: 2016/08/16
(Picture Description) Witnessed by Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economic Affairs Mr. Wei-Fuu Yang (middle), III and Canada Wavefront Accelerator signed MOU on August 16th. The distinguished guests took a photo after the event. From the left: Canada Wavefront Accelerator CEO James Maynar, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economic Affairs Mr. Wei-Fuu Yang, and III Executive Vice President Gary Gong.
To actively promote the incubation industry in Taiwan and assist domestic start-up teams grasp international cooperation opportunities, Institute for Information Industry (III) diligently facilitates the communication and cooperation between Canada and Taiwan in the industries of digital content, innovation and entrepreneurship, and broad band application with the support of Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs. On August 16th, III Executive Vice President Gary Gong and Canada Wavefront Accelerator President James Maynard signed Soft-Landing MOU at Vancouver with the support of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada. The event also invited Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economic Affairs Mr. Wei-Fuu Yang to witness the historical moment from which Canada and Taiwan move forward collaboratively to establish the platform for communication and cooperation in the digital creativity industry.
As a matter of fact, Canada Wavefront Accelerator was ranked the 14th largest accelerator around the globe and the 8th in North America in 2015 GUST Report. Until now, it has accumulated nearly the amount of 300 million US dollars. It has accomplished significantly in Canada to facilitate the economic growth in wireless industry and to assist the vigorous development of start-up ecosystem.
Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economic Affairs Mr. Wei-Fuu Yang indicated in his speech that the Ministry of Economic Affairs dedicates to perfecting the startup environment for the youth domestically and promoting to the public the incubation processes of innovation and entrepreneurship. Not only does the Ministry of Economic Affairs provide initial capital through two major channels including National Development Fund and domestic venture capitals, but also commission III to operate and develop incubation centers and actively promote the development of 4G related industries. Targeting the items such as the coverage rate of mobile network, the innovation of mobile industry, and youth entrepreneurship and incubation etc., the Ministry of Economic Affairs established private invested 4G domestic entrepreneurship and incubation parks around Taiwan so that the entrepreneurship industry chain of Taiwan mobile network could be complete.
Furthermore, in 2015, the Ministry of Economic Affairs founded "Taiwan Rapid Innovation Prototyping League for Entrepreneurs" as the base for the realization of global innovative ideas. The center is expected to expedite the transformation and upgrade processes of domestic industries by introducing innovation cases and providing services for rapid prototype construction. The Ministry of Economic Affairs looks positively toward the cross-border cooperation case. Through idea exchanging and resource sharing between the systems of III and Wavefront Accelerator, Canada and Taiwan can cooperate on the idea exchanging of digital creativity and the development of entrepreneurship industry so as to improve the research and development ability and cultivate future digital entrepreneurial talents.
III Executive Vice President and Ministry of Economic Affairs Digital Content Industry Promotion Office Director Gary Gong further pointed out from his observation that since global Unicorn* companies approach the maximum 9 year golden investment period in recent years but they could hardly provide stable and solid revenues, the venture capitalists in silicon valley started to change their investment principles from putting emphasis on creative ideas to betting on those who have the potential to realize innovative methods in certain areas. Because along the 100 km technology corridor from Taipei to Hsin-Chu, there are more than 4000 information and communication technology companies and numerous qualified software engineers, Taiwan has the best chance to become the most important base for the realization of creativity. Additionally, the distribution of 23 million population of Taiwan in various locations including urban and rural areas also provides the best environment for real market testing. With the "New Southbound Policy" promoted actively by the government, investors can further view Taiwan as the best beginning point for Asia markets to enter the 600 million markets of ASEAN.
It is worth to be mention that Asia has been one of the fastest developing areas in the innovation application domain around the world in recent years. With the mature mobile network infrastructure, the innovative Asian enterprises in mobile communication application domain would be the next Unicorn companies targeted by global investors. By the cooperation, innovative start-up teams from advanced countries such as the US and Canada can come up with the innovative applications that are about to be complete at III Nangang Software Incubator as well as App Innovation Park of TAF Innovation Base. The teams could also conduct the data collection rehearsals in Taiwan. Looking into the future, on the one hand, III expects to make connection with startup teams from Canada through the collaboration with Wavefront Incubator so that they could come to Taiwan to find possible collaboration opportunities. On the other hand, III would like to assist the industries and startup teams related to the fields of entrepreneurship and smart content expedite the process going to Canada for Soft-Landing activities. By mutually inspiring and cooperating with internationally superior startup teams, the teams from Taiwan would one day shine on the global stage and attract international attention.
*Unicorn companies refer to the startup companies that can survive and its market value surpasses 1 billion US dollars.
(Picture Description) Supported by Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs, III Executive Vice President Gary Gong (right) and Canada Wavefront Accelerator CEO James Maynar (left ) signed MOU on August 16th.
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