Ever since the show was broadcast in Taiwan and abroad, thousands of fans came to see the location where the show was made, an outdoor plaza with vegetation and surrounded by artificial pools and fountains. "Tourists come here like pilgrims making a visit to a sacred place," Rosa Tsui, director of the Nankang Software Industrial Service Center, said Sept. 28. "To be honest, before the show became an overnight hit, I almost forgot how beautiful our outdoor public facilities are, maybe because I've worked here for years," she added.
Located in the southeastern part of Taipei, Nankang District used to be a remote and sparsely populated area, but now has become a thriving center for knowledge-based industries. "The software park plays a significant role in the overall development of Nankang District," Ling Yun-sheng, chief executive officer of the Administration Department of Northern Industrial Parks under the Industrial Development Bureau, said Sept. 28.
In the 1970s, a multitude of export-processing zones mushroomed across the nation. "In the 1980s, the central government started to focus on the construction of science parks in order to bring high-tech industries to Taiwan, promote the upgrading of Taiwanese industries and drive forward economic development," Ling noted. The Nankang Software Park was established under the "Challenge Year 2008" project, a six-year national project to meet the government's commitment to the "Two Trillion and Twin Star Industries Development Plan," which targets the digital content and biotechnology sectors, he continued.
In addition to the software park, the Taipei Neihu Technology Park came into operation in 1995. Moreover, the Hsinchu Science Park, established in Hsinchu City of northern Taiwan, focuses on semiconductors. The Central Taiwan Science Park, located in Taichung County of central Taiwan, specializes in aviation, precision machinery and optoelectronics. The Southern Taiwan Science Park, with branches in Tainan and Kaohsiung, targets optoelectronics.
Since the information industry has been considered a strategic sector, Taiwan's government and businesses have jointly developed the computer hardware industry and turned the nation into the third-largest producer in the world. The development of the hardware sector has reached maturation, however. Further economic growth would have to come from another industry.
The overall development of the information sector relies on the rise of the computer software business. "After the plan to establish the Nankang Software Park with a total 8.2-hectare area was approved in 1992, the IDB began construction in 1995 and implemented the first phase of the park in 1999," Ling explained, adding that the second phase immediately commenced after demand for space in the first phase exceeded supply. The second phase was completed in 2003.
The first phase has five modern buildings, while the second phase has three. All buildings are equipped with advanced facilities, including intelligent office modular design, a continuous power supply and high-speed fiber-optic cable. "We particularly focus on attracting domestic and international enterprises in three sectors: integrated-circuit design, biotechnology and digital content," Ling said, adding that the office space in the first phase has reached 100-percent occupancy while the second phase surpassed 98 percent.
As a knowledge-based industry cluster, the park is now home to 253 local and international enterprises, such as Siemens Ltd. Taiwan, International Business Machines Taiwan Corp., Infineon Technologies AG and Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd. About 13,000 employees work at the park, which generated an annual production value of US$5.6 billion last year, Ling claimed. "Because our first and second phases are well-received by businesses, the third phase is going to be completed at the end of this year or the beginning of next year," he noted.
"Usually before companies decided to move their headquarters or branch offices to our park, they would conduct a comprehensive study first, evaluating the facilities, adjacent environment and possible added value," Tsui said. Setting up a headquarters or a branch office is a large investment for a company and requires considerable advance planning, she said.
One of the incentives the software park offers is the promotion of a favorable "6688" lease and a lease-purchase plan. Under the "6688" deal, a new company moving into the park only needs to pay 60 percent of the lease in the first two years and 80 percent in the third and fourth year. "For a startup, this promotion can alleviate the financial pressure to a certain extent during the firm's initial stage," Ling stated. In Han Chinese culture, the number six represents affairs going smoothly, while the number eight symbolizes making a fortune.
The lease-purchase plan, moreover, attracts companies to stay longer. If companies decided to buy rather than lease the office in the park after staying for a while, they could exercise the purchase option and the lease fees previously paid could be credited toward the purchase, Tsui explained. "A firm can then turn its leased office, which is an expense, into an asset," she noted. Owning permanent offices inside the park is the biggest difference between the software park and the other science parks across the nation, she said.
In addition to high-tech facilities and preferential leases, the software park established industry-specific incubators to help the enterprises stationed in the park. At present, there are the Nankang Software Incubator, Nankang IC Design Incubation Center and Nankang Biotech Incubation Center, Ling noted. The software incubator provides technical support, consulting services and integrated marketing for startup software companies with innovative technologies and market potential.
The IC center is operated by the System-on-Chip Technology Center of the Industrial Technology Research Institute--the nation's largest research organization--with an aim to assist IC companies and further upgrade their research-and-development centers. As an incubator focused on biotech startups, the third center is sponsored by the Small and Medium Enterprise Administration under the Ministry of Economic Affairs and managed by the Development Center for Biotechnology, which provides access to DCB resources.
"Another important factor for firms to set up in a specific location is to help them retain talent," Tsui said. "It's often underestimated that the long-term cultivation of employees stabilizes a company." Another function among the three incubation centers besides bolstering the development of businesses, she continued, is to nurture and train local talent with the latest knowledge and techniques. For workers, the opportunity to develop their skills is an additional incentive to stay.
The park encouraged relations among companies inside the park and with surrounding residents through special programs. "We held a variety of events, such as music concerts, artistic exhibitions and sports contests," Tsui said. "We try to bring everyone in the park together, so it becomes more like a community," she stated.
When the Taipei World Trade Center Nankang Exhibition Hall launches its operations next year, Nankang District will lure more enterprises and investment, Ling claimed, as the area will be served by new Mass Rapid Transit lines. "The software park is expected to be an 'Asia-Pacific Software Center' and an 'Asia R&D Headquarters' in the future," he said.
Write to Allen Hsu at allenhsu@mail.gio.gov.tw