The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a plan to develop Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli County into a powerhouse for technology in a step toward implementing a key part of president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) platform.
This project — dubbed the “Taoyuan-Hsinchu-Miaoli great Silicon Valley plan” with an emphasis on integrated utilities and infrastructure — would receive NT$20 billion (US$634.54 million) from this year’s budget should lawmakers sign off on the appropriation.
The initiative is to go to the Legislative Yuan for debate.
Photo: Liao Hsueh-ju, Taipei Times
The proposed industrial zone is hoped to create 140,000 jobs and add NT$6 trillion to the economy, National Development Council Deputy Minister Kao Shien-quey (高仙桂) told a news conference.
The project’s cost cannot be accurately estimated at this time, as its medium and long-term costs remain unknown, Kao said.
The development of a national semiconductor industry is an issue of strategic importance, he said, citing foreign efforts to build tech clusters in Arizona, Japan’s Kyushu and Seoul.
The design of the planned industrial zone would emphasize domestic innovation in tech, creating a skilled workforce in the region and the infrastructure necessary for the sector’s development, Kao said.
Electricity and water supplies, transportation and communication capacities, healthcare, homes, schools and proper utilization of renewable energy are some of the issues the project needs to address, he said.
Water supplies for the zone would likely be drawn from New Taipei City’s Sanchong (三重) and Lujhou (蘆洲) districts, Taoyuan’s Shihmen Reservoir (石門水庫) and water reclamation plants, he said.
Solar and offshore wind farms, energy-storage systems, smart grid solutions, grid resilience improvements and reserves provided by dual-circuit power supplies would ensure a stable supply of energy, he said.
The planned Sinmeilung (新梅龍) and Banlong (板龍) highways in conjunction with expansions of light rail systems in Taoyuan and Hsinchu would ease traffic, while affordable housing and improved waste management in the zone would improve livability and sustainability, he said.
The Hsinchu Science Park would receive 1,605 hectares of additional land, he added.
Separately, the National Development Council proposed a four-year project dubbed the “Asian Silicon Valley 3.0 plan” with a first-year budget of NT$11.7 billion.
The Asian Silicon Valley plan would boost investment in innovative technologies, including 5G Internet, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, to enable Taiwanese solutions to access foreign markets, council officials said.
The two “Silicon Valley” plans are mutually supportive plans that are part of the government’s core strategic industries, sustainability and innovation policies, they said.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
Yangmingshan National Park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) nature area has gone viral after a park livestream camera observed a couple in the throes of intimate congress, which was broadcast live on YouTube, drawing large late-night crowds and sparking a backlash over noise, bright lights and disruption to wildlife habitat. The area’s livestream footage appeared to show a couple engaging in sexual activity on a picnic table in the park on Friday last week, with the uncensored footage streamed publicly online. The footage quickly spread across social media, prompting a tide of visitors to travel to the site to “check in” and recreate the
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
RSS