Southern Taiwan Science Park ( STSP ) was established by government in 1996 to balance the economic development between Southern Taiwan And Northern Taiwan and to push the high-tech industries in Southern Taiwan. The park is located among Shanhua Township, Sinshih Township and Anding Township with very convenient transportation so that it can connect with the world in the shortest time making the park the technology core of new century in Taiwan.
In STSP, the area of phase 1 site is 638 hectares and the area of phase 2 is 400 hectares. So far, the phase 1 has completed its construction with the cost of NT$2.63billion and has the entry of 157 firms. The site will be finished developing in 2005 – 5 years earlier than the scheduled 2010. As for the phase 2, it’s approved in June 2002, and started the developing engineering while its land acquisition was done in Nov 2002. Since then, there are some big firms like Chi Mei and Hann Star to enter the park which symbolized a prosperous future of the park.
The establishment of STSP has promoted local employment. The employment of STSP has increased to 32617 in Nov 2004 from 1705 in 1999. It’s estimated that when the park is fully developed in 2021, there will be an entry of 400 firms with the employment of 180000 persons.
A. Current development of the industries
STSP is focused on high-tech industries including integrated circuit, computer and peripheral, telecommunication, optoelectronics, precision machinery and bio-technology. The sales of the all firms in the park in 2003was high up to NT$155.3billion.
Industry | No. of firms | Sales in 2003 （ 0.1billion ） |
|---|
Integrated circuit | 22 | |
| Optoelectronics | 45 |
Bio-technology | 28 |
Telecommunication | 14 |
| Precision machinery | 38 |
| Computer peripherals | 3 |
| Miscellaneous | 7 |
| Total | 157 | 1553 |
The performance of investment attracting by STSP is really remarkable. By the end of 2004, there are 157firms entered which indicates that the number of firms and yearly sales are growing. It’s obvious that STSP has an ideal location with convenient transportation network, plus complete hinterlands and many research institutes. With these, STSP surely will attract more big technology firms in the future years.