The Youth Alliance Against Central Taiwan Science Park and the Taiwan Rural Front yesterday called on the government to suspend construction of the Central Taiwan Science Park’s (CTSP) fourth-phase campus in Erlin Township (二林), Changhua County, as many of the country’s science parks still have a high percentage of idle space amid an apparent downturn in the high-tech industry.
“I don’t see the need to build more useless, idle science parks that do no good but waste taxpayers’ money and cause damage to the ecology and traditional local industries such as agriculture,” a member of the alliance, Chen Tzu-hui (陳慈慧), told a news conference held at the Legislative Yuan.
Citing government statistics, Chen said that in central Taiwan alone there are 1,466.46 hectares of idle land in the region’s science parks, including 83.97 percent idle space in Tongluo Science Park in Miaoli County, 40 percent in the CTSP’s first-phase campus in Greater Taichung and 47.43 percent at its second-phase campus in Yunlin County.
Photo: CNA
“On the construction of these science parks, the government has wasted hundreds of billions in taxpayers’ money; it must be stopped now,” she said.
Another member of the alliance, Lin Le-xin (林樂昕), said the Erlin campus project began when AU Optronics (AUO) asked for the government’s help to build a new plant, but “now that recession has hit the LCD industry, AUO announced [in September] that it would suspend all its expansion plans. Do we still need the Erlin campus?”
According to official estimates, NT$39.5 billion (US$1.2 billion) more is still needed to complete the Erlin project.
Citing information from the CTSP’s Web site, Lin said only two companies — one that manufactures medical accessories and another that produces mechanical parts — have expressed interest in building new factories in the 631 hectare Erlin campus.
“Doesn’t this phenomenon show that we already have more science parks than the demand for them?” he asked.
“In 2005, all science parks were NT$67.2 billion in debt, by the end of last year, they were NT$120 billion in debt,” Taiwan Rural Front spokeswoman Tsai Pei-hui (蔡培慧) said, quoting statistics from the National Audit Office.
“We should not create any more bottomless pits that swallow up taxpayers’ money,” Tsai added.
Yao Liang-yi (姚量議), a Taiwan Rural Front member who just graduated from National Kaohsiung Normal University’s Graduate Institute of Geography, said he grew up in a farming village and plans to go back home to make a living off agriculture after he completes his military service.
“No more farmland should be sacrificed for science parks and we don’t want to shoulder more government debt,” Yao said.
The Erlin project has also drawn opposition from farmers and environmentalists over water allocation and land expropriation issues.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai