The Executive Yuan has proposed to increase next year’s budget for the “five trusted industry sectors” by 40.6 percent compared with this year, with NT$12.2 billion (US$379.9 million) appropriated for the semiconductor industry.
A total of NT$21 billion is to be allocated to the “five trusted industry sectors” — semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI), military defense, security and surveillance, and next-generation communications — for next year, in addition to the NT$1.2 billion dedicated to the fifth phase of the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program, totaling NT$22.2 billion, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said in a report.
The total budget increased by NT$6.4 billion, or about 40.6 percent, from this year, it said.
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The budget is crucial to plan the next stage of the nation’s industrial development and on Friday it was sent to legislative committees for review, it said.
The semiconductor sector is to receive NT$12.2 billion, up from NT$10.1 billion, a year-on-year increase of 21.2 percent.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) would receive NT$7.05 billion, mainly to fund projects related to the Taiwan Chip-based Industrial Innovation Program.
The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) is to receive NT$4.93 billion, the report said.
The budget for the AI sector is to be boosted by 134 percent to NT$7.4 billion next year from NT$3.2 billion this year, with NT$4.8 billion allocated to the NSTC, NT$1.47 billion to the MOEA and NT$810 million to the Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA).
The NSTC would focus on high-performance computer architecture, AI development and setting up an AI computing data center.
The NT$1.4 billion next-generation communications sector budget consists of NT$820 million allocated to the MOEA — to aid chip-based innovations, and international collaborations and experiments in the sixth-generation wireless industry — NT$480 million to the NSTC for the development of low Earth orbit satellites and NT$100 million to the MODA.
The MODA would also receive NT$600 million to improve interdisciplinary and integrated cybersecurity, and chip-based resilience.
The MOEA would get NT$600 million to construct indigenous warplanes and warships, develop an Asian innovation and incubation center and establish a maintenance center for F-16 Falcon aircraft, the report said.
The latest National Development Plan from next year to 2028 has set the gross output value goals for the “five trusted industry sectors,” including a NT$2.66 trillion increase in output value and additional 250,000 job opportunities for the semiconductor sector by 2028, and an output value of up to NT$1 trillion for the AI sector by 2026.
The government also set goals of output value of more than NT$130 billion for the security monitoring and cybersecurity industry, NT$30 billion for the satellite communications industry, and NT$30 billion for the military drone industry.
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