TAIWAN Excellence: Sharing is Caring, a first world-wide philanthropic campaign launched by Taiwan’s Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT), Ministry of Economic Affairs has announced the top three winning proposals.
With the goal of spreading love and emphasising social and environmental issues to the general public, Taiwan Excellence received over 781 entries in the Sharing is Caring campaign from 61 countries, with Malaysians accounting for 56 of the entries between September and November 2021.
“The Ministry of Economic Affairs will assist the top three winners in realising their dreams of assisting society and protecting the environment, allowing more people to be cared for,” said Bureau of Foreign Trade director-general Cynthia Kiang.
“We also hope that this event will bring to life the spirit of Taiwan Excellence.”
In addition to the US$10,000 prize money for the winning proposal, The BOFT will also fund each with up to US$150,000 (roughly around RM628,950) to execute their respective ideas.
After a robust and rigorous assessment of the proposal criteria, Taiwan Excellence revealed the following top three winning proposals:
1. Educating and Empowering the Community Through Mobile Kart (The Philippines)
Proposing the presence of a solar mobile educational kart to bring different learning and skills training to the communities in order to empower underprivileged children, youth, women, farmers, and fishermen to become active members of society.
2. Solar Solutions for Indigenous Māori Communities (New Zealand)
Due to the remote location of the tribes, they often encounter grid instability and are unable to be provided with electricity in real time. The proposer intends to install Taiwanese solar panels in the communities to establish a local green energy generation cycle for the Māori communities.
3. One-day Medical Tour and Same-day Denture Delivery – Mobile Digital Denture Clinic & Oral Health Service Project (Taiwan)
The project aims to improve the physical and mental health of the elderly in rural areas by utilising dental products and physiological measurement equipment. They will collaborate with dental professionals as well as social enterprises and industry partners to provide public services in order to establish the future service module of digital dental care.
Professor Chu Jou Juo shared on behalf of the judging panel that while all proposals were excellent, a good proposal should not only have public welfare and creativity in mind but must also be feasible and reasonable on order to turn good ideas into action.
In saying that, Professor Chu also encouraged enterprises to continue demonstrating the spirit of corporate social responsibility.
The event also included a lucky draw for those who had successfully predicted the winners.
People were invited to predict and vote for the winning proposals online, and during the event, Kiang went on to announce three winners who had voted for the best proposals.
The winners stood a chance to win up to NT$50,000 (RM7,556.18) in prizes. The winner list can be viewed here. – Jan 27, 2022
