Every year, ICSB holds a Congress in a different area of the world to bring together practitioners, academics, and entrepreneurs to discuss medium, small, and micro-sized enterprises. The theme of the 2018 World Congress to be held in Taipei, Taiwan is “Reshaping the World Through Innovative SMEs,” which reaffirms the unshakable responsibility of SMEs in leading the world to the coming decades.

Taiwan’s small and medium enterprises have been recognized as the key driving force of the country’s economic development over the past half century. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have contributed significantly to the economic growth of Taiwan. Taiwanese SMEs are characterized by “High Efficiency, High Tenacity, and Agility,” which are also the advantages of the economic development in Taiwan. The country has more than 1.38 million SMEs which account for 98% of all companies. They have 8.759 million employees which account for 78% of all employed persons. This means that the SMEs development history is the epitome of the economic development in Taiwan. They are highly relevant and affect each other.

Taiwan is abundant in high-tech talents and has leading R&D as well as manufacturing technologies, and a superior geographic location. When facing global competitiveness, Taiwan also actively promotes industrial transformation and wants to achieve the goal of “Being the Pacific Asian Innovative Center.” Recently, the government is also promoting a large national-level industrial program: “Asia Silicon Valley Development Agency”. The program focuses on “IoT Industry Innovation and R&D,” and “Refine Innovative and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem.”