TT MAKER Taitung Maker Park Achievements Are Remarkable; County Government Holds Tea Reception on the 2nd

TTMaker Taitung Maker Park is the first case in the country of using collective strength, through close cross-disciplinary and cross-industry cooperation, to collaboratively integrate technology and resources. It not only promotes the establishment of Taitung County as a distinctive internationalized tourist city, but will even become Taiwan's true benchmark for local industry-government-academia collaboration. The Taitung County Government held a welcome tea reception for the first and second cohorts on the 2nd. County Magistrate Huang Chien-Ting listened throughout the entire event, hoping that through the results presentations of the 9 teams from the first cohort and the creative displays of the 20 teams from the second cohort, they could exchange ideas with one another, work together to change Taitung and turn Taitung around, and create brand-new business opportunities for Taitung.

Since makers moved into TT MAKER Taitung Maker Park in August 105, it has been operating for only just over 9 months, yet it has attracted attention from all sectors and also won the 2017 Domestic Smart City Innovative Application Award. In the first cohort, 4 recruitment events were held, 70 teams registered, 26 teams were admitted, 30 entrepreneurship coaching sessions were held, 60 individual team coaching sessions were held, and the total number of people coached reached 1,436; in the second cohort, 3 recruitment events were held, 36 teams registered, and 22 teams were admitted.

County Magistrate Huang Chien-Ting said that the difference between TT MAKER and other innovative platform public spaces lies in its complete "birth, nurturing, education, and construction" mechanism, and its integration of five major dimensions of Taitung's urban development: forward-looking urban planning, actively building a livable city, tourism industry development, deep cultivation of education for the centuries-old task of cultivating people, and promotion of industrial upgrading, with a total of 18 innovative application services planned for development. To share the initial entrepreneurial risks of startup teams and encourage startup teams to engage in innovative service development, the Taitung County Government sought NT$27 million from the Council of Indigenous Peoples as funding for administering the "Subsidy Program for Startup Teams to Develop Innovative Application Services." It is expected that the subsidy program will be announced in mid-May of this year, with a maximum subsidy cap of NT$5 million per innovative application service development. The goal is not only to keep talent in Taitung, but also, it is believed, this is the best opportunity for disadvantaged people to turn their lives around.