Drones—including unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned marine vehicles—are finding increasingly widespread applications across fields such as agriculture, environmental protection, logistics, health care and national defense, revealing vast potential for commercial growth. Amid global geopolitical shifts and rising demand for secure and trusted supply chains, Taiwan now faces a pivotal opportunity to build a high-reliability drone industry.
Accordingly, the government has included drones under its Five Trusted Industry Sectors initiative and is launching a comprehensive program to develop the drone industry (2025-2030). The program aims to spur industry growth by accelerating the expansion of domestic demand and the creation of new drone applications, as well as by capitalizing on business opportunities arising from the shift of international purchases toward non-red supply chains, ultimately establishing Taiwan as the Asia-Pacific hub of a democratic drone supply chain.
Four main strategies
■ Markets – Expanding domestic and international demand to guide industrial development: Increase public-sector procurement of drones, carry out strategic investments through the National Development Fund, and form a national coalition to support the drone industry and drive its expansion into international markets.
■ Technology – Fostering technological advancement and international cooperation: Provide subsidies to develop key drone technologies and accelerate their transition to industrial application, thereby enhancing domestic R&D and manufacturing capabilities. Strengthen cooperation with full-system manufacturers in Europe, the U.S. and Japan in technological development and application fields. Collaborate with foreign research institutions to promote R&D and validation of forward-looking technologies.
■ Environment – Forming industry clusters and ecosystems: Establish an innovation R&D center and an industrial park manufacturing base. Prepare dedicated flight-testing sites and set up drone technology innovation laboratories.
■ Legislation – Improving regulatory frameworks for unmanned vehicles: Revise regulations for unmanned aerial vehicles and draft new regulations for unmanned marine vehicles. Formulate procurement and usage standards for the public sector and assist companies in obtaining international certifications.