A new artificial intelligence (AI) industrial park to be built in Tainan would be at the foundation of Taiwan’s development of AI as an industry and its application to other sectors, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said on Saturday.
During a visit to Tainan, Cho toured the site of the Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City project and said the first two parts of the project that are built — the CyberSecurity and Smart Technology R&D Building, and the Shalun Green Energy Technology Demonstration Site — represent the starting point for the science city’s AI development.
The new AI park is to extend out from those two areas, he said.
Photo: Wu Chun-feng, Taipei Times
The National Science Technology Council one of the agencies overseeing the park, said it would house data centers, and other sections are planned for zero-carbon technologies, quantum science, smart agriculture, smart transportation and smart medicine.
Cho said the park was being established to carry out President William Lai’s (賴清德) policy of supporting “Five Trusted Industry Sectors” — semiconductors, AI, defense, security and surveillance, and next-generation communications.
Major tech companies such as Nvidia and AMD have plans to further their bases in Taiwan, and the government has the responsibility to provide good infrastructure to facilitate their investment, he said.
The industrial park would be another base connecting with northern Kaohsiung to form a “southern smart corridor,” he said.
Northern Kaohsiung is emerging as a site for high-tech parks, including the Northern Kaohsiung Industrial Park project that broke ground last year, and the Ciaotou Science Park aimed at attracting semiconductor, smart machinery, and space-related companies.
Also sprouting up is the Nanzih Technology Industrial Park, where Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co is building a fab that would produce advanced 2-nanometer wafers.
Council head Wu Cheng-wen (吳誠文) said his agency would accelerate the building of data centers and work with top international enterprises to turn Shalun into an AI R&D stronghold in the Asia-Pacific region.
Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) said the AI park could benefit from the presence of AI research institutes at National Cheng Kung University and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University’s Tainan Campus and would also eventually benefit other southern cities.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
The Republic of China Army Command yesterday relieved Kinmen Defense Battalion commander after authorities indicted the officer on charges connected to using methamphetamine. The Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Wednesday detained Colonel He (何) after the Coast Guard linked him to drug shipments and proceeded to charge him yesterday for using and possessing crystal meth. The man was released on a NT$50,000 bail and banned from leaving Kinmen, the office said. Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Chen Chien-yi (陳建義) told a news conference yesterday that He has been removed and another officer is taking over the unit as the acting commander. The military
RSS