Taipei, Nov. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Dun & Bradstreet, a leading global provider of business decisioning data and analytics, held its 9th "Dun & Bradstreet Taiwan Elite SME Awards", Taiwan's iconic annual event for small and medium sized companies (SMEs) on November 9th. A total of 1,037 Taiwanese SMEs received awards this year; the total export value of the winning firms in 2021 accounted for 15% of Taiwan's overall export value, compared with 10% in 2020.

The theme of this year's event was 'ESG Empowering Enterprises with Sustainable Evolution', and the judging process included an ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) ranking indicator. In addition to the awards ceremony, a series of workshops were held covering sustainable finance, sustainable technology, and sustainable governance.

The awards ceremony featured keynote addresses from Vice President Ching-te Lai, N. Rashad Jones, Economic Section Chief of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), and Zhi-fang Huang, President of Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), all of whom also presented the winners with their awards.

One thousand winners have been selected from more than 1.46 million Taiwanese SMEs, based on export trade competitiveness. The manufacturing industry accounted for 67% of the award-winning companies, and the wholesale industry for 29%. Businesses with the highest export value class A accounted for 52% of winners, up from 48% in 2020, indicating strong business momentum amongst these firms, despite the impact of the pandemic.

Of the 1,037 award-winning companies this year, 12 companies have won for nine consecutive years with stable profits, and 252 (24 %) companies have won the awards for the first time due to export growth. The 'MVP Enterprise of the Year Award' was awarded to 10 companies who have grown export value for three consecutive years and have demonstrated excellent ESG performance and data transparency.

94.4% of the winners outperformed peers from their own industries, beating larger companies and all SMEs in Taiwan

As attention increasingly turns to ESG within supply chains, companies need to focus on their ESG performance. The D&B ESG Ranking indicator was added to this year's awards selection criteria, which uses a score of 1-5, with one the highest ranking and five the lowest. This year's Top 1000 award-winning companies have an average ESG score of 1.4, better than the average for Taiwan's SMEs by 2.5 points, and better than the average of Taiwan's large enterprises by 1.7 points. 94.4% of the winners outperformed peers from their own industries, beating larger companies (79.0%) and all SMEs in Taiwan (49.7%). This year's winners performed well in both export terms and ESG; 15 companies were presented with the 'ESG Sustainability Award' for their outstanding ESG performance.

The Taiwan External Trade Council (TAITRA) has worked with D&B Taiwan for many years, focusing on the growth of Taiwan's SMEs. TAITRA's President, Zhi-fang Huang attended the ceremony and commented: "From TAITRA's perspective, the focus on ESG is an opportunity for Taiwanese companies to improve and evolve."

He continued: "In recent years, TAITRA has helped small and medium-sized enterprises fulfil their ESG goals, and has encouraged industry players to invest in sustainable development for the good of the earth. To help SMEs manage ESG within their international supply chain, TAITRA has teamed up with D&B Taiwan to introduce programs including "ESG health check" and "ESG analysis report". These programs provide companies with an overall ESG performance report of same-industry peers, competitiveness analysis and recommended actions to take, helping them understand their own ESG progress before thinking about how to improve their ESG competitiveness through certification."

"It's Dun & Bradstreet Taiwan's great honor to bring together Taiwan's industry leaders and outstanding SMEs," said Michelle Sun, General Manager of Dun & Bradstreet Taiwan at the ceremony. "Over the past three decades, Dun & Bradstreet has accompanied Taiwanese companies through a golden era of industrial upgrade and digital transformation and has witnessed Taiwanese companies reaching important milestones. Dun & Bradstreet will continue to support SMEs with their ESG transformation via data analysis and insights, helping them enhance their sustainability and resilience."

Industry leaders invited to address sustainable finance, sustainable technology and sustainable governance at ESG Sustainability Forum

With sustainable transformation as its core, the event also included a forum featuring some of Taiwan's most influential business leaders as keynote speakers: Zhi-peng Hsiao, Senior Vice President of Corporate Banking Product Division, CTBC Financial Holding Co., Ltd., shared her insight on 'sustainable finance as a starting point for transformation', while Jing-shiou Wang, Managing Director & General Manager of HP Taiwan Information Technology made a speech on 'sustainable technology as a catalyst for transformation'. Chin-tsang Ho, Director General of Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Sam Lin, Vice President of KPMG Sustainability Consulting Co., Ltd, and David Hsu, General Manager of M-Power Information, as well as D&B Taiwan's General Manager, Michelle Sun, joined a panel discussion on the value of sustainable governance and transformation.

For the full list of 2022 D&B Top 1000 Elite SME Awards winners and ESG Forum information, please visit the event website at https://events.businesstoday.com.tw/2022/dnb/anniversary.html

About The D&B Taiwan Top 1000 Elite SME Awards

Launched in 2014, Dun & Bradstreet conducts analysis every year using export data for Taiwan's SMEs and Dun & Bradstreet's unique business database. Indicators include payment and financial stress indices, export growth rates and value range. This year, an ESG evaluation indicator has been added, and out of more than one million small and medium-sized enterprises in Taiwan, the top 1000 companies with the most export competitiveness have been selected. The awards categories include 'Annual Corporate MVP Award', 'ESG Sustainability Award', 'Consecutive 9, 5, and 3 Years Award', and 'Elite Award'. The winning companies were selected using 2021 data.

The 9th Dun & Bradstreet Taiwan Elite SME Awards event is organized under the guidance of Small and Medium Enterprise Administration of MOEA, supported by Taiwan External Trade Development Council, and the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), and sponsored by CTBC Financial Holding Co., Ltd., HP Taiwan Information Technology, the Export-Import Bank of the Republic of China, GTMC, Porsche Centre Taipei and RMS.

About Dun & Bradstreet

Dun & Bradstreet, a leading global provider of business decisioning data and analytics, enables companies around the world to improve their business performance. Dun & Bradstreet's Data Cloud fuels solutions and delivers insights that empower customers to accelerate revenue, lower cost, mitigate risk, and transform their businesses. Since 1841, companies of every size have relied on Dun & Bradstreet to help them manage risk and reveal opportunity. For more information on Dun & Bradstreet, please visit www.dnb.com

Dun & Bradstreet ESG Ranking

The Dun & Bradstreet ESG Ranking is based on a collection of reliable ESG data sources, including Dun & Bradstreet data, news media, corporate websites, corporate filings and reports, government information, certification, NGO data and lists. ESG data, with an accumulated total 42 million of private and public companies around the world, conforms to the six major international sustainability standards (SASB, GRI, TCFD, UN SDGs, UN PRI, CDP). The ESG ranking includes 13 themes and 31 sustainable issues. After rigorous analysis and data validation, combined with external data, the AI module is used to calculate the ESG Ranking rating. For more information on Dun & Bradstreet, please visit www.dnb.com.tw.

Range (Class) of Import and export value

Produced and published by the International Trade Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, who collects import and export manufacturers approved and registered by the International Trade Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and manufacturers registered in the processing export zone of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and classify them by ranges according to their import and export value. Enquiry URL: https://www.trade.gov.tw.