The Ministry of Economic Affairs is to step up measures to combat the hoarding of idle industrial land in a bid to facilitate the return of businesses facing pressure amid the US-China trade war.
A ministry survey of the nation’s 62 industrial parks found that as of the end of July, 344 plots of land totaling 214.5 hectares have been unused for the past three years.
To speed up the revitalization of land use, new rules came into effect on Wednesday.
Effective immediately, owners of industrial land are to enter a two-year consultation period to begin using or to sell land with help from industrial park service centers.
In the event that they are unable to remedy utilization issues before the end of the two-year period, owners would face fines of 10 percent of the state-assessed value of each plot, the Industrial Development Bureau said.
Owners would also be required to submit land-use revitalization plans for review and failure to carry out the plan would result in the land being auctioned, with starting bids at market prices, the bureau said.
Lu Hsin-hsiung (陸信雄), a director at the bureau’s Industrial Parks Division, said that the assessed values of industrial land have been updated to more closely reflect market valuations, which would make a fine more of a deterrent.
Registered prices are more than 80 percent of market value following a round of updates in 2016, up from 60 percent previously, Lu said.
However, the ministry’s survey also found that there are only 33.1 hectares of idle land in northern Taiwan that could be freed up, with the region the first choice among many businesses looking to return as manufacturing operations in China come under pressure amid stricter environmental requirements.
Central Taiwan has the most idle land with 142.1 hectares, while southern Taiwan has 39.3 hectares, the survey showed.
To address land scarcity in northern Taiwan, the most developed industrial region, the government would ease regulations to allow companies to build 50 percent more indoor space, Lu said.
He also urged businesses to consider central and southern industrial parks to ensure balanced development nationwide.
As demand continues to outstrip supply, prices for industrial land in Hsinchu and Taoyuan have risen by about 30 percent in the past three years, according to real-estate services provider Savills (Taiwan) Ltd (第一太平戴維斯).
Prices in Taoyuan’s Zhongli (中壢) and Guanyin (觀音) districts and at the Taoyuan Science Park in Longtan District (龍潭) have surged as much as 40 percent since 2014, Savills said.
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