Construction of National Taiwan University Hospital’s branch at the Hsinchu Biomedical Science Park officially began Jan. 7 in northern Taiwan’s Hsinchu City.
The 728-bed hospital will be built in two stages, with the first scheduled to start operations in 2020, and the second in 2022. From the outset the branch will feature intensive care facilities, while over time adding technologies to enable services like long-distance heath care.
“Taiwan has encountered bottlenecks in developing its economy and must therefore undergo structural transformations,” Premier Lin Chuan said at the groundbreaking ceremony.
The new addition to the science park is also expected to act as a major medical research center. “It is imperative that the nation work to develop sectors featuring high value-added jobs,” he added. “The innovation-oriented, high value-added biomedical industry is just such a sector.”
Lin said the facility’s efforts to integrate academic and industrial resources will lead to advances in areas such as medical materials and pharmaceuticals. He also expects this branch of NTUH, together with its two existing facilities in Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County, to provide the best possible medical services to residents in the Hsinchu area and Miaoli County to the south.
One of the most prestigious hospitals in Taiwan, NTUH was founded in 1895 at the beginning of Japanese colonial rule from1895 to1945. Headquartered in Taipei City, the facility has established five branches in Taiwan.
Biomedicine is a key element in the five-plus-two innovative industries initiative promoted by the government. The comprehensive program to foster economic restructuring and industrial upgrading also targets the emerging and high-growth sectors of green energy, national defense, smart machinery and Internet of Things, and promotes two core concepts: the circular economy and a new paradigm for agricultural development. (OC-E)
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