At 7:29 each weekday morning, an express train pulls into the railway station at Sinshih in Tainan County, and more than half of the passengers disembark. For a few minutes, the station's tiny waiting area is packed with men and women making their way to the buses that will take them to work.
Gloria Liang is one of these commuters. She works for Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp. (CMO), a flat-panel maker, in the Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP). The Tainan section of the park, a 10- to 15-minute drive from the train station, hosts 150-plus companies. More than 45,000 people work there, 18,000 of them for CMO.
For Liang, the commute to Tainan makes for a long day. She lives in the suburbs of Kaohsiung City, and has to leave her house by 6:25 a.m. But, she says, "I earn more than I could if I worked near my home, and the benefits are very good."
As anyone who has recently driven through Tainan County knows, the growth of the STSP, which was established in 1996, has physically transformed the central part of the county. Gone are many of the sugarcane plantations and rice fields; in their place are TFT-LCD factories, wafer fabs, sleek office buildings and broad, straight roads.
But seeing outsiders like Liang pour into the area each morning, and then leaving around dusk, some might wonder whether the STSP is really a blessing for the people who live nearby, or whether it has simply pushed up real estate prices and brought heavy traffic to Sinshih, Shanhua, and Anding--the three formerly bucolic townships which host the 1,038-hectare park.
Politically, the STSP administration reports to the central government's National Science Council. The administration handles everything within the park, including road repairs, waste management and tidying up after typhoons. In terms of finance, the science park is an independent enclave; the park and its tenants do not get services from or pay taxes to the three townships or the county governments. STSP public relations officer George Ho describes the zone as "an extraordinary area offering one-stop services" to tenants and potential investors.
When Tainan County was chosen to be the site of Taiwan's second science park, many hoped that it would unshackle the region from its reliance on agriculture and rustbelt manufacturing industries, and reduce or even reverse the exodus of young people.
Some local officials think the park has been a great success in this respect. "Agricultural economies [like Tainan County] always face the problem of population outflow," says Tien Lin-hu, director of Tainan County Government's information division. "However, the STSP has created thousands of job opportunities, and more and more people are willing to come back to their hometowns, and stay here."
A Mobile Population
Jobs in the science park pay well by local standards. A production line supervisor at Corning Display Technologies Taiwan Ltd., an American company that is part of the science park's optoelectronics cluster, can earn close to NT$60,000 (US$1,850) a month if he or she is willing to work some night shifts. The park's workforce is well-educated. According to the STSP administration's Web site, 14 percent have a graduate degree; another 23 percent hold a bachelor's degree.
At first glance, however, Sinshih remains a small, traditional town. The liveliest it gets is when the morning fruit and vegetable market near the Yongan Temple is in full swing. Nightlife means the Sunday evening market.
Dormitories for employees at the science park. With 12-hour shifts, manufacturers like to keep their employees as close to their factory site as possible. (Photo by Chang Su-ching)
According to statistics published on Tainan County Government's Web site, between November 2000 and November 2006--during which time the STSP's workforce grew fivefold--the population of Sinshih increased by just four percent. In the same period the official population of Tainan County as a whole fell very slightly. Some Tainan County townships further from the science park--such as Dongshan and Beimen--saw declines of over five percent.
However, Taiwan's household registration system does not accurately reflect where people are actually living. Single adults are usually recorded as living in their parents' homes, even if they are studying or working elsewhere. Some parents register a relative's house as their abode, so as to get their children into a better school. Certainly, the number of advertisements at Sinshih Railway Station offering rooms for rent, the high rents being asked for and the demand for places in the science park's official dormitories suggest that plenty of outsiders are seeking temporary homes in the area.
Other evidence of the science park changing the region is not hard to find. Tainan City now has two five-star hotels (before 2001, there were none); both do a great deal of business with companies in the STSP. There has been a rash of hotel construction in Sinshih. And if the state of Shanhua's housing market is anything to go by, Tien is right about the park's impact.
According to Chen Kuo-ping, manager of the Shanhua-Science Park branch of Zhu-Sheng Real Estate, house prices in the town have been rising by 10 to 15 percent per year over the past few years. He notes that buyers have not only been Shanhua natives, but also people moving here from other parts of the south and some people relocating from north Taiwan.
Shifting Business Hub
Shanhua's official population (42,121 in November 2006) has barely budged for a decade, but at least 20 residential housing developments in and around the town were in progress at the end of 2006. Some of the new houses are priced at more than NT$5 million (US$150,000). Moreover, the town's center of gravity appears to be shifting west and south--away from the old business hub along Jhongshan Road near the railway station and toward the science park.
The Appreciate Life Grace Gallery is one of Shanhua's more upmarket housing projects under construction. The development's Chinese name makes clear its relationship to the science park, and advertisements for the project include the English sentence, "Designed for easy access to the science park."
According to the builders, Prince Housing & Development Corp., facilities will include a gym, a meeting room, outdoor and indoor playgrounds, plus 2,650 square meters of gardens. Prices start at NT$2.36 million (US$73,000) for a two-bedroom apartment.
Demand for accommodation near the science park has pushed rents to a level that seems very reasonable for people relocating from northern Taiwan, but which Tainan County natives consider high. A three-bedroom house goes for at least NT$9,000 (US$280) per month; a furnished room with en suite bathroom and cable television is typically NT$4,000 (US$120)per month including utilities. High rents are one reason why Liang, who spends NT$2,469 (US$75) each month on a railway season ticket, prefers to commute.
Both chip makers, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (which has 5,000 workers in the STSP) and United Microelectronics Corp., have employee dormitories for those who do not live locally. The science park administration manages more than 1,000 dormitory rooms for families and single people. The latter are not especially cheap (around NT$5,000 or US$150) per person per month), but there is a waiting list to get in, says Ho. More units are under construction.
According to Ho, the science park administration is well aware that the prosperity of the park, combined with the fact that it brings congestion without directly contributing to local government coffers, might cause resentment in the surrounding area. The administration therefore seeks to build good relations between the park and the local populace in various ways. One is by encouraging park tenants to, as far as possible, recruit workers from nearby townships.
Some science park companies try to hire locals as a matter of course. "For the manufacturing section, where shifts are 12 hours long, we prefer to hire people who live in the surrounding area, or who live in the science park dorm," says Chrissie Wu, the section manager of the human resources department at ScinoPharm Taiwan Ltd., a biotechnology company.
Southern Attractions
ScinoPharm, which has around 430 employees, has found senior positions hard to fill. According to Wu, recruitment efforts are hampered by the fact that the majority of companies in the same field are based in Taipei or elsewhere in northern Taiwan. "It's quite difficult to find candidates for positions above supervisor. For certain kinds of jobs, for example quality assurance and regulatory affairs, it's very difficult indeed," she says.
At least 20 residential housing projects are being built around Shanhua, catering for science park employees. (Photo by Chang Su-ching)
Since the STSP was founded, there has been a lot of talk of southern Taiwan natives working in the north eagerly seizing the opportunity to return to the region of their birth. However, Wu thinks that when it comes to recruiting people based in the north, a southerner is only slightly more inclined to accept a job offer in the science park than a northerner. People are seldom interested in moving down to Tainan if they have been in the north for more than 10 years, and especially if they have children in high school, she says.
"We have particular difficulty recruiting people with a good educational background and suitable experience if they are aged between 35 and 50," she says. "If they do decide to move down, they have to be comfortable with the idea of staying in the south during the week, and going back to their family in the north each weekend."
Northerners who have a partner in the Tainan area are often willing to move south, Wu says. Such individuals are likely to settle down nearby and be stable employees.
Corning has recruited workers throughout Taiwan. "Although most employees are from southern Taiwan, there are some who have returned to their ancestral homes, some who have followed a spouse who has relocated and some who have relocated from northern Taiwan," says Jim Waldman, Corning Taiwan's human resources manager.
"Employees and their families who are returning or new to southern Taiwan have adapted very well to the area, and have not given us any negative feedback relating to housing or education" he adds. Less than one percent of Corning's science park employees stay in the park's dormitory, he says.
While setting up and then expanding its LCD glass substrate finishing facility, Corning brought dozens of American engineers to the STSP. Many stayed at the five-star Evergreen Plaza Hotel in Tainan City.
Despite being more than 20 kilometers away, the hotel has done well out of the growth of the science park. According to Bair Wan, the hotel's executive office secretary, about 30 percent of the hotel's income is science park-related. The Tayih Landis, Tainan City's other five-star hotel, gets 60 percent of its income from science park companies, says Doris Cheng, the Landis's marketing supervisor.
International Education
No top-end hotels have appeared near the park, but Sinshih saw the opening of two new mid-range hotels last year and a third is under construction. At the largest of these, Sin Da Science Park Business Hotel, the clientele is 80 percent Japanese, says assistant manager Samantha Hsu.
Some Japanese expatriates live in Kaohsiung City, so as to be close to the Japanese school there, and commute to the STSP. It is possible they will relocate to Tainan County now the park has a school that can meet their needs. Last year, the science park administration took over from Tainan County Government both Nanke Elementary School and Nanke Junior High School and merged them into a new institution, National Nanke International School. The international school offers classes taught in Chinese, English and Japanese, and serves not only expatriates, but also Taiwanese who have returned home after years abroad, and whose children are unfamiliar with the local school system and language.
Wan points out another reason why, despite the growth of the STSP, the towns closest to it have not boomed as much as observers might expect. "Almost all the senior managers [in the science park] seem to live in Tainan City, not Tainan County," she says. "They like to go back to the city every evening, so they can really forget about their work. Also, there's no nightlife in Shanhua and Sinshih."
ScinoPharm's Wu is an example. She was born in Tainan City, and lives there with her husband and two children. The drive from her home to the park takes 30 to 35 minutes one way; she spends about NT$5,000 (US$150) on gas each month.
Wu points out that houses in Shanhua are nowadays not much cheaper than houses in Tainan City, and that many people prefer living in the latter, especially if they don't have relatives near the science park. The city, which has over 750,000 residents, offers far more entertainment and dining options than the small towns around the science park.
That is not to say there is not good food to be eaten in Shanhua. Over the past few years, there has been a proliferation of mid-range (which in southern Taiwan means US$6 to US$10 per person per meal) restaurants. Japanese, Korean and Western cuisines, unavailable a decade ago, are now served in a number of places.
Italy Pizza/Pasta, probably the first Shanhua eatery to have a bilingual menu, has been around for more than six years. It closes every Saturday, which for many restaurants elsewhere is the most profitable day of the week. According to the staff, the owner found it was not worth opening that day because so many science park workers go back to their hometowns for the weekend. For some, it seems, Shanhua is a dormitory town--a place where they sleep, but not where they want to spend their days off.
Undoubtedly, some STSP workers choose to lodge close to the park because of transportation issues. Neither Shanhua nor Sinshih railway stations have more than two or three fast express trains per day, though both are well-served by slower commuter trains. During rush hours, getting from the park onto either of the north-south freeways can be a frustrating business.
Road-building schemes, such as a current one to link Highway 19A with Highway 1, could spread the park's prosperity across a larger area. But this scenario might not be good for businesses in Shanhua, Sinshih and Anding. As it is, thousands of people drive from afar to the science park each day, clogging the area's roads, but never spending a dollar in the townships adjacent to the park. Wu, for instance, says she very seldom buys anything in Shanhua except gasoline.
However, Tainan County Government is balancing transportation improvements with efforts to make the science park area a more attractive place to live. The biggest project is the Nanke Special District in Sinshih. The ground was broken on this NT$254 billion (US$7.7 billion) development in September 2005. According to Tien, the 107-hectare Nanke Special District is nothing less than a complete "town-building plan [that will] create a suitable living environment near the STSP."
Official projections see the STSP as accommodating 400 companies and 180,000 workers by 2021. If the park does grow as predicted, and facilities in the area inspire people of all backgrounds to live close by, the Sinshih-Shanhua-Anding region may well become a metropolis as prominent domestically and overseas as Tainan City. But there is a long way to go yet.
Steven Crook is a writer based in Tainan County.
Copyright (c) 2007 by Steven Crook