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.
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
RSS