According to World Federation of Exchanges statistics, 2017 was a comeback year for IPOs since 2007. However, the stock markets in Taiwan had opposite results to the global IPO performance. For the period from 2011 to 2017, the number of IPO on Taipei Exchange shrank by 55%, from 51 to 23 companies, and the amount of IPO proceeds shrank by 33%, from NT $9,448 million to NT $6,340 million. This report tried to analyze the causes to the declining IPO number and propose some recommended solutions.
The causes to the weak IPO activities includes the levying of capital gains tax, the slowing down of SMEs growth, the private firms unwilling to go public, and the competition from Greater China. As to the main strengths in terms of IPO, Taipei Exchange has advantages of high transparency, high turnover rate and P/E ratio, lower listing costs and the industry clustering. The weakness lies in the limited market scale compared to other emerging stock markets. One major opportunity is the high potential of foreign companies in South-Eastern Asian countries and Mainland China which have tight linkage with Taiwanese. The greatest threat facing Taipei Exchange is the rapidly rising stock markets of Greater China. Any of new policy launched in the competitor markets will inevitably impact on Taipei Exchange.
Taipei Exchange should take actions to turn challenges into opportunities. It can collaborate with Taiwan Stock Exchange and make use of the well-established multi-layer markets to encourage SMEs enter the capital market. In addition, Taipei Exchange has to enhance the cooperation with other global exchanges, strengthen the IPO ecosystem, find IPO incentives of private companies, and loosen regulation of listing rules and on-going requirements.

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