Coinciding with Vice President Lien Chan's (連戰), announcement of a 12-point plan for the future of Taiwan's high-tech development yesterday, the National Science Council (NSC, 國科會) also made public a plan covering the country's science-based industrial parks.
The NSC said more industrial parks are to be created to form two main high-tech industrial regions in Taiwan by the end of 2003. The officials said that the area for science-based industrial parks would be doubled, boosting the total value of output to NT$1.3 trillion dollars.
According to the plan, the boundary of the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park (新竹科學工業園區) would be extended into Miaoli County (苗栗) by building satellite bases in the remote townships of Chunan (竹南) and Tunglo (銅鑼), forming a high-tech industrial cluster creating NT$1 trillion-worth of output and providing 120,000 job opportunities.
In southern Taiwan, NSC officials said the Tainan Science-based Industrial Park (台南科學工業園區) -- still in the planning stages -- would be expanded to include a high-tech industrial area, covering 1,500 hectares of land from Tainan to Kaohsiung counties. It would create NT$300 billion-worth of output and 40,000 job opportunities.
"Dispersing the overly concentrated high-tech industry can lower risks," said NSC chairman Huang Chen-tai (
Huang said that NT$30 billion had been earmarked to carry out the plan, to cover feasibility studies selecting sites for building satellite bases in southern Taiwan.
Within two months, a special team composed of experts from industry, academia, and the government would select several townships in southern Taiwan as sites for the industrial parks, Huang said.
"First, we have to consider the future demands for both water and electricity in southern Taiwan, then pick out proper sites," Huang said, adding the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA,
Huang said that both the Tainan and Kaohsiung county governments welcomed the plan and had promised to help the science council to obtain land.
However, the council recognized the difficulties presented by southern Taiwan's unique situation. The scarcity of water resources caused by both natural and man-made factors has posed problems for seven southern local governments since the early 1990s.
Since last December, the passage of an environmental impact assessment for the Pinnan Industrial Complex (
The MOEA's Water Resource Bureau said the available water supply totals around 80,000 tons a day, but the complex, as it is planned, would require around 190,000 tons a day.
NSC officials said yesterday that factories in the newly planned industrial parks would recycle 75 percent of their waste water, while using seawater desalination technology to meet additional needs.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
RSS