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Government backs biotech research, biomedical facility

The government attaches great importance to the biotechnology service industry, and is planning to set up the first biomedical park in Hsinchu, a government spokesman said yesterday.

Hu Sheng-cheng (胡勝正), chairman of the Cabinet-level Council for Economic Planning and Development, spoke after visiting the Development Center for Biotechnology, a non-profit group mostly financed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Hu said that the nation has a lot of talented people, and the government is willing to invest in them and establish clinical facilities and laboratories.

Hu said that the Development Center for Biotechnology is in charge of animal experimentation, and the government is now planning to move to human testing.

The biomedical park in Hsinchu will have 400 beds to do human testing on volunteers, such as terminally ill cancer patients who will try therapies and medicines. National Taiwan University Hospital will supply related medical research technology.

A team under the Ministry of Economic Affairs has estimated that the production value of the global biotechnology service industry was US$9.8 billion in 2000, and it is expected to grow to US$16.3 billion by 2005.

But Taiwan's biotechnology service industry has been growing slowly, with production value around NT$2 billion.

The government therefore has vowed to help develop this industry under its "Two trillion, two stars" program -- which aims to reach NT$1 trillion (US$29.49 billion) in the production value of the nation's semiconductor and display industries. The "two stars" refers to the digital content and biotechnology industries.
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