Authorities plan to expand the size of the park to 1,200 hectares after 94 percent of the current 413 hectares of land was booked.
Yang said he was confident the new industrial park would eventually outperform the Hsinchu Science Industrial Park (新竹科學園區) in the north, which has been hailed as the nation's answer to Silicon Valley in the US.
The Hsinchu science park houses 384 high-tech companies focusing on semiconductors, telecommunications, and computer related industries. It churned out products worth US$32.41 billion last year.
But the LCD and microchip industry is renowned for its huge consumption of water and investors at Hsinchu have been annoyed by past occasional water shortages.
"The new industrial park is fast coming from behind," Yang said proudly of the Taichung project.
Lai touched a raw nerve in regards to competing parks elsewhere, when he asked rhetorically: "Have you ever heard of central Taiwan being gripped by a water shortage?"
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