Southern Taiwan Science Park plays leading role in Taiwan's next wave of high-tech economic growth

STSP houses over 200 high-tech enterprises in the areas of IC, optoelectronics, biotechnology, telecommunications, precision machinery and other related industries, over 20 of which are foreign companies from countries such as Japan, the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

Already at 90 percent capacity a little over a decade later, the NT$500 billion park continues to grow at a rate of 20 new companies each year, says Chen Chun-wei, director-general of the park's administration.

STSP so far has created over 50,000 jobs, and 10,000 new ones are added to the total each year. Chen estimates that in five years' time this figure will exceed 100,000.

Last year, STSP's turnover exceeded NT$450 billion, and this year it is expected to reach NT$550 billion, translating into a rate of increase of NT$100 billion per year, according to Chen.

Compared to its counterpart and predecessor to the north, the Hsinchu Science Park (HSP), STSP covers a much larger expanse of land at about double the size. To put this in perspective, one of the largest companies at STSP, Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO), takes up an area of 100 hectares, or about the size of a golf course, notes Chen.

A major difference between HSP and STSP is that the northern science park is composed of roughly 70 percent integrated circuit (IC) and 30 percent optoelectronics companies, whereas STSP is the other way around, Chen points out. He estimates, however, that in the future each of these two sectors will be divided equally within STSP.

While STSP is home to Taiwan's most comprehensive optoelectronics industry cluster, Chen says STSP does not favor enterprises according to their sector, but what's more important is that their presence enhance the existing clusters at the park, chief among which are optoelectronics, IC and biotechnology.

Over 50 companies form STSP's optoelectronics cluster, most of which are located at TSP, incorporating upstream, midstream and downstream know-how ranging from glass substrate, photomasks, polarizers, optical film and color filters, to TFT-LCDs and processing equipment via notable representations such as Corning Display, Finex, Optimax, 3M, Sintek Photronic, CMO, HannStar, Daifuku, Intelligent Research and ULVAC.

Leading the pack of IC companies at STSP are the world's top chip foundries Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC). Others in this cluster include Applied Materials Taiwan, Hermes Systems, Mirle Automation and Epoch Material, for a total of about 25.

The biotechnology cluster is made up of over 30 firms including ScinoPharm Taiwan, G&E Herbal, Global Micology Biotechnology, Tuck-more Biotechnology, AsiaGen and Vita Genomics.

Other industry clusters at STSP are precision machinery with over 55 companies, telecommunications with nearly 20 companies, as well as green energy and energy-saving technology and other industries.

The science park also benefits from a comprehensive cluster of R&D institutes represented by such prominent organizations as the Industrial Technology Research Institute's southern branch, the Biotechnology Experimental Center in Southern Taiwan of Academia Sinica, the National Nano Devices Laboratories, the National Center for High-performance Computing, the National Chip Implementation Center, and the research centers from National Cheng Kung University and National Chung Cheng University.

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