The Ministry of Science and Technology is mulling an expansion of the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) into Hsinchu County’s Baoshan Township (寶山), as a growing number of Taiwanese manufacturers are seeking to move their Chinese production lines back to Taiwan to avoid US tariffs on Chinese imports.
Such an expansion would be the first part of a broader plan to increase land supply to cope with growing demand, the ministry said yesterday, confirming a report in the Chinese-language Economic Daily News.
“About 10 technology companies intend to invest in Taiwan. They approached the administrations of the nation’s major science parks to discuss [potential investment],” Minister of Science and Technology Chen Liang-gee (陳良基) told lawmakers on Monday in response to legislators’ questions about whether US-China trade tensions would lead to an influx of China-based Taiwanese companies returning home.
There are about 140 hectares available at the nation’s three science parks, ministry data showed.
The ministry is also assessing the possibility of accepting the Kaohsiung City Government’s proposal to create a new, small-scale science park in Qiaotou District (橋頭).
Carbon emissions are the key issue for such a plan, the ministry said.
The central government has set a mechanism to rein in carbon emission in Kaoshung and Pingtung County, where air pollution is a more serious issue than other parts of the nation.
The ministry has said it wants to develop a total of 600 hectares by 2030 in preparation for land requests from manufacturers in the artificial intelligence, aerospace, artificial and virtual reality industries, as well as others wanting to build factories.
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