It has been one year since the Social Innovation Lab opened on October 18, 2017. To celebrate the anniversary, we organized the social innovation market on November 17-18, during which social innovative products and services were promoted to the public to showcase the achievements of warm power of social innovation in Taiwan. Individuals who are active in social innovations, including Minister without Portfolio Audrey Tang and the Minister of Economic Affairs Jong-Chin Shen, took part in today's anniversary event. The Lab's official house number on No.99, Sec. 3, Ren'ai Rd. was launched, and Kaohsiung was announced as the host city for the 2019 Asia-Pacific Social Enterprise Summit. 
To raise public awareness of consumers' social responsibility, the slogan "Taiwan's warm power community" was adopted for the anniversary event. A total of 56 quality social innovation products and services were also marketed to encourage consumers show their "buying power" to support social innovation enterprises. Minister Audrey Tang, along with partners from other governmental departments, including MOEA Minister Jong-Chin Shen, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Pau-Ching Lu, Deputy Minister of Education Sun-Lu Fan, Legislators Wan-Ju Yu, Yu-Jen Hsu, and Man-Li Chen, as well as international guests, including Mr. Hoshino, Deputy Representative of the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association, and Chairman Kim from the Korea Innovation Center.
In our special meeting session "Q&As on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with Minister Tang," Tang pointed out that this year's Asia-Pacific Social Enterprise Summit in Taichung has successfully attracted international attention to the energy of social innovation in Taiwan. The scale of the summit will be expanded for the 2019 session taking place in Kaohsiung on May 11-12; the summit will be co-organized by Children Are Us Foundation, Impact Hub, Social Enterprise Insights, and B Corp Asia. She pointed out further that every social innovation enterprise participating in the event today seeks to solve social, environmental, and economic issues via various means in pursuit of the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals. She also called for public support for their philosophies when visiting the market.
Minister Shen pointed out that social innovation startups have not only developed new industrial paradigms, but also created richer social values. The Ministry of Economic Affairs will continue to provide social innovation enterprise resources, including value cultivation, laws and regulations streamlining and relaxation, incubation promotion, and financing, and to assist with the development of their feasible operational models and sustainable development. Through the association with resources of corporate social responsibility (CSR), the MOEA collaborates with social innovation enterprises. Today, we have invited to our event our partners who offer long-term support with CSR recourses, including WPG Holdings, Leofoo Tourism Group, CTBC Financial Holding, Taiwan Mobile, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Cathay Financial Holdings, Planet Technology, Hua Nan Financial Holdings, KPMG (Taiwan), and PwC Taiwan, in the hope of raising public awareness of social innovation.
The Social Innovation Lab won the Good Design Award 2018 in Japan, played the role of an ideal cradle for social innovation enterprises, and set an excellent example for public space-making. Our on-site team Agoood has been awarded Japan's Best 100 Award. The Social Innovation Lab, which features partners from various fields proposing solutions to social issues, has attracted over 40,000 visitors. Furthermore, the Lab collaborates with the Taoyuan Social Business Center and the Taichung Social Innovation Unit, and hopes to attract participation from the general public by organizing anniversary events and thereby improve public knowledge of social innovation. In addition, startup teams which have stationed in the Social Innovation Lab also returned to the Lab to share experience and spark exchanges in social innovation practices. The Social Innovation Lab will continue to operate with the principles of openness, clustering, empiricism, and sustainability, and promote our work to all regions in Taiwan to foster the general atmosphere for social innovation. Feature social innovation experience events on November 18 include "Startup Black Horses and Social innovation Rising Stars: A Forum on the Keys to Success," interactive events featuring "Ya-ting the AI pianist," DIY workshops for creative dishes using rice products from Kanner, as well as social innovation markets. Prizes available for lottery during the day included Milk House products, Greenvines care products, Dialogue in the Dark concert tickets, and many more. We look forward to your support and participation! Please visit our website "International Entrepreneur Initiative Taiwan" or the Facebook fan page for Social Innovation Lab for more event details.