The Taipei City Government is considering expanding the Nan-kang Software Park (南港軟體園區) to meet the demand for office space from semiconductor-design houses and digital-content companies, a city official announced yesterday.
"More than 95 percent of office space in Nankang Software Park has been booked," said Wu Hueih-meei (
There are still 38 companies on the waiting list to move into the park, she said.
The city's is considering expanding the software park on a 2.5-hectare piece of land next to the yet-to-be-constructed Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall 2.
The software park, which opened in October 1999, is currently home to 107 companies.
It began an expansion program in March to add another 78,000-ping of office space.
Wu said some 150 companies are expected to move into the park by year-end.
The park has attracted several foreign high-tech firms such as Infineon Technologies AG, Royal Philips Electronics NV and Siemens AG from Europe and Sony Corp and NEC Corp of Japan. Foreign companies account for 20 percent of the park's residents, according to Wu.
The city hopes to map out a blueprint for the latest expansion plan by the end of the year, she said.
"Taking the city's working and living environment into consideration, Taipei is more suitable for knowledge-based industry than manufacturing activities," Wu said.
To differentiate the Nankang park from the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park and other districts focusing on information-technology hardware manufacturing, the city government decided to seek software talent, she said.
The software park's expansion plan is in line with Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou's (
Ma is scheduled to lead a two-day trade mission on Aug. 25 to visit officials of some 200 technology companies in California's Silicon Valley.
Ma plans to visit Intel Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co, Synopsys Inc, Stanford University as well as University of California, San Francisco's biotech-center.
The city's Economic Development Committee councilor Lai Shyh-bao (
The digital-content industry has been viewed as a promising sector for the next couple of years. According to government statistics, the industry is expected to achieve an annual growth above 20 percent between this year and 2006, and by 2006, its production value will reach NT$370 billion.
According to the Council for Economic Planning and Development, a space of at least 28.8 hectares is needed in the north of the country to meet the demand of the nation's integrated-circuit (IC) design companies.
Taiwan's IC-design industry posted a 5.9 percent growth last year, with production of NT$122 billion.
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