At the Cabinet meeting held today, Premier Mao Chi-kuo asked the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) to contour science parks into advanced technology chains and bases for innovative industrial clusters.
"Science parks are the locomotive of our nation's science and technology industries," he noted.
Government agencies shall work together to enhance Taiwan's industrial transformation by combining the efforts of industry, government, academia and research institutions to raise national competitiveness and bring prosperity to local economies.
The premier made these remarks after the MOST's briefing about the parks, which have experienced continuous growth in the past few years in terms of both investments and total production value. The parks' combined operating revenue was NT$2.325 trillion (US$76 billion) in 2014—a new high—and the wages of their workers continued to rise.
Mao is proud to hear that the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report 2014–2015 placed Taiwan second in the world in the state of its cluster development, noting science parks are of central importance in this area.
As shortages of water and electricity could become more common in Taiwan, science parks' water- and energy-saving capabilities should be established as the benchmark for other industries, the premier said. He asked the MOST to boost science park industries' rate of recycled-water usage and to encourage them to use renewable energy resources.
The science parks' annual production value growth was 6.28 percent in 2013; integrated circuits grew 14 percent, information and communications 18.5 percent and precision machinery 7.5 percent. Investments in science parks surpassed NT$1.5 trillion (US$48 billion) total over the last five years, and because revenue continued to grow, last year workers enjoyed an average wage increase of 3 percent.