Central Taiwan Science Park enjoying fast growth

"We paid attention to anti-shock mechanisms when constructing the bullet train, and this helped with the earthquakes."

Tai Chien, National Science Council deputy minister

Revenue generated by the nation's three leading science parks hit NT$1.44 trillion (US$44.02 billion) for the first 10 months of the year, fueled by growth of the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), the National Science Council said yesterday.

Although the central park's revenue is the least of the three, it posted the highest growth rate of 244 percent to NT$138 billion for the January to October period.

Last week, an official from the Central Taiwan Science Park said it expected to have the largest congregation of 12-inch wafer fabs in the country, with 14 companies expressing interest in building their foundries there.

The central science park presently houses 85 factories, and 28 are precision machinery plants, said Yang Wen-ko (楊文科), a director of the park's preparatory office, last Saturday.

Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) -- the nation's largest research and development center -- reported an 18 percent increase to NT$930 billion in sales, while the Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學園區) saw sales grow 37 percent to NT$372 billion.

The brisk figures were fueled by strong second-half demand across high-tech industries, Tai Chien (戴謙), the council's deputy minister, told a press briefing.

The combined annual sales of the three parks will surpass NT$1.8 trillion, representing a growth of 28 percent from last year, he said. The figure is lower than the target of NT$2 trillion that the council projected in August.

Tai said Tuesday's earthquakes barely affected operations in the southern park, as it has learned lessons from the 921 Earthquake.

"We paid attention to anti-shock mechanisms when constructing the bullet train, and this helped with the earthquakes," he said.

On the introduction of investment projects, Tai said 81 manufacturers had set up shop in the parks, many more than the original estimate of 50 manufacturers.

He said that the number of manufacturers in the three parks had reached a total of 776 -- 475 at the Hsinchu park, 103 at the central park and 198 at the southern park.

The three parks had created 185,091 jobs, he said.

Additional reporting by CNA