In a bid to boost the biotechno-logical edge of the agriculture sector, the Executive Yuan yesterday tentatively approved NT$8.3 billion for the establishment of a biotechnology park in Pingtung County, pending the final approval by the legislature.
"By 2014, we hope to see the park's annual production value reach NT$18 billion and annual revenues generated by patented agricultural products exceed NT$2 billion. We hope to create 8,000 job opportunities," Lee Chien-chuan (李健全), vice chairman of the Council of Agriculture, said at a press conference yesterday.
Lee made the remark after Minister without Portfolio Hu Shan-jen (
Lee said that the government is duty-bound to help the agricultural sector upgrade its competitive edge.
"We've been drawing up the two drafts since September 2001 after the Economic Development Advisory Conference concluded in August 2001 that the government should establish an agricultural biotechnology park within six to 12 months," Lee said.
As the Cabinet tentatively approved the two drafts yesterday, Lee said that the council hopes to open an office on Oct. 12 to coordinate the establishment of the park. If all goes well, the council hopes to see 120 companies move into the park's first-phase Haifeng base by next February. The estimated cost of building the base is NT$5.6 billion. The second-phase Taiyuan base (
The council is hammering out a preferential scheme to encourage companies to relocate to the 350-hectare park, which the council is leases from Taiwan Sugar Corp, Lee said.
"We're thinking of providing land, facilities, professional talents, financial loans, material and rent at a preferential rate," Lee said.
Tax exemptions on equipment are also being considered.
The annual production of Tai-wan's agricultural biotechnology industry amounts to NT$3.2 billion, or less than 1 percent of the overall agricultural sector.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods