The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) yesterday outlined its spending plan for next year, with funding for the National Space Organization (NSPO) and experimental schools affiliated with the country’s science parks included in the proposed NT$54.54 billion (US$1.71 billion) budget.
The council, formerly the Ministry of Science and Technology, said it plans to increase spending next year by NT$7.06 billion to boost Taiwan’s development of cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence, advanced semiconductors and 6G.
NSTC Minister Wu Tsung-tsong (吳政忠) reported on the council’s budget for next year at a meeting of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee.
The extra NT$7.06 billion planned for next year’s budget would go to the National Science and Technology Development Fund (NT$2.24 billion), subsidies for the NSPO (NT$2.76 billion) and funding for establishing and maintaining experimental secondary schools in the nation’s four science parks, Wu said.
The NSTC had decreased the National Science and Technology Development Fund’s allocation by NT$1.6 billion to NT$43.1 billion as projects had been completed, he said.
The ministry has earmarked NT$16.2 billion of its science park operation fund, in addition to a rolling budget for maintaining fixed assets totaling NT$40 billion, Wu said.
The operation fund would acquire land to establish and expand science parks, and maintain affiliated experimental schools, he added.
The NSPO, soon to become a directly affiliated agency of the NTSC, is in the final stages of testing the country’s first domestically built weather satellite, Triton, with its launch planned for early next year, Wu said.
The NSTC has tasked those working on the Triton project with testing 10 domestically developed key technologies and components, he said.
The agency would propose a plan by the end of this year for achieving net zero carbon emissions in Taiwan by 2050, Wu said, adding that it also plans to establish a national artificial intelligence center and an information security technology research center.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas