New Southbound Policy Portal
STSP’s Tainan City campus is one of the core contributors to a record revenue result of NT$2.46 trillion for Taiwan’s three science parks in 2017. (Courtesy of STSP)
Hsinchu Science Park in northern Taiwan led the way with NT$1.02 trillion in total revenues. Although down 1.98 percent from the year before, this drop was offset by a 5.93 percent increase at Southern Taiwan Science Park in Kaohsiung and Tainan cities to a best-ever NT$878.76 billion. Central Taiwan Science Park in Taichung City gained 11.13 percent to NT$563.83 billion.
The integrated circuit sector remained the top revenue generator for the parks, with figures rising 3.45 percent year on year to NT$1.63 trillion, or 66.1 percent of the overall total. Precision machinery and telecommunication devices recorded the highest annual growth rates, surging 14.74 percent and 10.56 percent to NT$112.26 billion and NT$42.04 billion, respectively.
According to the MOST, the strong performance of the parks is due to heightened demand for advanced mobile communication, semiconductor and telecoms equipment, as well as display panels, new pharmaceuticals and processors for personal computers, smartphones and telecommunication devices.
The parks also reported record exports of NT$1.73 trillion during the period, up 14.22 percent, while imports totaled NT$795.88 billion, an annual decline of 3.49 percent.
As a result of increased business activity and a series of job promotion initiatives, the parks reported an all-time high combined workforce of 272,294, up 1.2 percent from the previous year.
With economic conditions continuing to stabilize at home and abroad, as well as additional opportunities stemming from new applications in artificial intelligence, biometrics, high-performance computing and Internet of Things, the MOST said it expects revenues at the parks to gather more steam in 2018. (SFC-E)