The need for the second science park

In the early 1990s, the development o f Hsinchu Science Park (HSP) faced a challenge since there was no land available for further expansion and the demand for land was still high. The National Science Council (NSC), the authority responsible for science park policy, faced difficulties in obtaining land for further expansion o f HSP in northern Taiwan. Therefore, the central government began to look for an alternative solution, including the suggestion to use a number o f empty land areas owned by the

Ta i n a n

Jjk System Interchange Interchange jq National Highway Provincial Highway

Figure 5.1 The Location and T ransp ort System of Tainan Science P ark (not to

The policy-making process for Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) project elicited much contestation during the site selection process. As previously mentioned, the

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central government’s decision to establish a science park in southern Taiwan was due

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to the recognised need to promote industrial development and balance regional development. However once the intention to establish the STSP was announced publicly, competition among counties to obtain the investment benefits suddenly intensified and the central government found itself facing the difficult decision o f

! where to locate the STSP

Table 5.1 Chronological Development of Tainan Science Park

i Source: STSP website, http://www.stsipa.gov.tw/web (accessed 18th Dec, 2007)

Oct 1990 Development’ project, indicating its determination to set up Southern Taiwan Science Park.

Jan 1994

A panel to plan the Southern Taiwan Science Park project assembled by the NSC.

1st Dec 1994

The NSC set out the assessment criteria for site selection o f the STSP.

14th Jan 1995 organised the preliminary STSP Administration for construction purpose.

23rd Jun 1995

The NSC called a meeting with Tainan County Government and Taiwan Sugar Corporation for the purpose o f establishing the construction and development plan.

31st j ul 1995...

The NSC submitted an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to the Environmental Protection Administration, Executive Yuan.

13th Feb 1996

The Environmental Protection Administration o f the Executive Yuan accepted the EIA with some restrictions.

22 nd Apr 1996

Regional Planning Committee, CPA, approved the STSP development plan.

6th Jan 1997

The STSP Administration and Tainan County Government arranged the fisrt monthly meeting to discuss relevant development issues.

25th Apr 1997...

Dao-Ye archaeological site was unearthed.

9th May 1997

CPA approved the STSP detailed development plan.

9th Dec 1999

CPA approved the Specific District Plan for the STSP

5.3.2 Site location d ispu te

There were unsurprisingly many candidate competing in the site bid, however, only two candidates, Sinshih town, Tainan County and Lujhu town, Kaohsiung county, went forward to the last site selection round. In fact, after the initial evaluation, three competing sites went on to the final round: two were in Tainan County, Sinshih and Guiren, and the other was Lujhu, Kaohsiung. According to an interview in September 2006 with Hsin-Hsou Wu, Director o f Department o f Urban and Rural Development, Tainan County Government, Guiren was removed from the list first because there was another development project planned within it, the Special District o f High Speed Railway Station Project, in the area. The County Government wanted balanced development within the county therefore the local planning authority decided to offer full support to Sinshih as the site for the second science park.

In order to choose the most suitable site, a government panel for site selection made up o f representatives from academia, government and industries was appointed by the NSC to make a final decision. After several visits to both sites and evaluations o f multi-sectoral factors, eventually, surprisingly, Sinshih was preferred to Lujhu, 8 votes to 1, though many thought the votes should have been much closer. During the interview with Director Wu, Department o f Urban and Rural Development, Tainan County Government in September 2006, he contended that the decision had been very reasonable because o f Sinshih’s decisive advantage, namely a large plain site with a rectangular shape and integrated transport system. On the other hand, Lujhu’s main problem was its location far from an urban area, and the unattractive fragmentation o f the site.

This study’s intention is not to judge if the decision was right or wrong, though there

must have been strong determination on the part o f those supporting Sinshih to ensure its ultimate victor, since its rival had exerted a tremendous effort to win the bid.

Despite there being endless questions about the result, Dr. Su (Interviewed in September 2006) pointed out two crucial points why Shinshih won the bid:

‘A significant reason why the Panel fin ally chose Sinshih as the site fo r the Southern Taiwan Science Park project was there would be more spare space fo r further development should the need arise. The experience o f H S P ’s lack o f

space had indicated that the new project should avoid this disadvantage in advance and should be able to provide more space. The Sinshih site is located in an area with much space fo r expansion and, compared to Lujhu Town, Kaohsiung County, this was the decisive advantage o f Sinshih Town, Tainan County.

Second, an excellent transport system was also a key concern o f the Panel.

There are three highways and fou r highway, junctions around the Sinshih site (another one is nearby), whilst the transport system around Lujhu Town is not as good as that o f its competitor. All the reasons cited above led to Sinshih being the site chosen fo r the Southern Taiwan Science Park project. ’

As mentioned in interviews with both Director Wu and Dr. Su, the concerns o f the site selection panel were space for further expansion and the need for a nearby integrated transport system. They were the two primary reasons for choosing Shinshih site.

However, a cloud o f suspicion has hung over the decision and never vanished, that is to say, some argue that the Lujhu site had a transport system as good as its rival, though its area plan was not as big as that o f Shinshih (Interview with Dr. Su). Were

the size o f the site and the nearby transportation system the real factors that influence site selection?

Both Sinshih and Lujhu have their advantages, however, it appears that both candidate sites were backed by some very ‘powerful persons’ who might have intended to affect the final decision during the policy making process according to interviewee comments. Let us review the political relationship Dr. Su spoke o f when being interviewed:

‘...the form er M agistrate o f Tainan County, the winner, was Tan-Shan Chen (DPP), while Teng-Hui Lee (KMT) was the President at that time. Though we cannot say how fa r President Lee was involved with the decision making, it is possible Lee supported Tainan County in the bid since Lee maintained a very good relationship with specific DPP politicians, including Tan-Shan C hen'.

On the other hand, the current Speaker o f the Legislative Yuan, Jin-Pyng Wang (KMT), who was the Vice Speaker o f the Legislative Yuan at that time, cooperated with the Magistrate o f Kaohsiung County, Cheng-Shien Yu (DPP) to promote the Lujhu site as a location for the STSP project. Speaker Wang’s constituency belongs to Kaohsiung County and Lujhu Town is Wang’s hometown. This implies, in the case o f site selection for the STSP project, that politicians put political concern based on local interests above political ideology.

In other words, the rules o f the political game at the local level differed from those operating at the central level. While spatial planning had increasingly influenced the planning discourse at the state level, local benefit was the prime political

consideration. Therefore, individual political coalitions had been formed for the same goal o f winning the bid in both counties. It is very difficult to tell to what extent such political coalitions had affected the decision-making process but it appears to have been an important factor in policy making in this case (Yang and Su, 2002).

Such informal political networks behind the official planning framework seem to suggest an arena where politics and planning interests meet up. Nevertheless, it would be unfair to conclude that the STSP site project selection decision was determined by political intervention only, since the decision was acceptable in general (Interview with Dr. Su in September 2000). In fact, despite there having been some theories about political intervention, many academics praised the outcome. According to an article written by Yang and Su (2002), if political power had been the sole influence, the final vote would not have been 8:1, a landslide victory to Sinshih; on the contrary, it would have shown a tied result. A better explanation for the result is that politicians might have attempted to defend their interests, but the Commissioners on the Site Selection Panel seemed still to be honest and professional, and made an appropriate decision:

‘...intervention from the NSC was negligible and even the panel had not adopted the N S C ’s advice report. The site selection decision fo r the STSP project was based on the potential o f Sinshih site... a scholar, one o f the commissioners, claim ed that it was wrong to attribute it to political intervention’ (Yang and Su, 2002, p.58).

It is believed that the site selection process for the STSP project had been undertaken with professional concerns, though it was also true that the decision-makers had taken

complex factors including politics into account. As Dr. Su pointed out when being interviewed, there was a bureaucratic mechanism keeping the planning decision on track, despite both central and local governments concern about their political stake in the game. After a keen competition, the NSC eventually respected the choice made by the Site Selection Panel for the STSP project therefore it was determined that the STSP would be set up on the Sinshih site, Tainan County, and the site is called Tainan Science Park (TSP) today.