Hsinchu Science Park

The Hsinchu Science Park (HSP; traditional Chinese: 新竹科學園區; simplified Chinese: 新竹科学园区; pinyin: Xīnzhú Kēxué Yuánqū; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Sin-tek Kho-ha̍k Kang-gia̍p Hn̂g-khu) is an industrial park complex that originated as one campus straddling Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County. It later expanded to Zhunan and Tongluo in Miaoli County, and presently covers six campuses across northern Taiwan. It was established by the government of Taiwan on 15 December 1980. While the whole complex and the first campus share the same name, the name Hsinchu Science Park usually refers to the campus rather than the whole complex.

History

The idea of the establishment of the Hsinchu Science Park was first proposed by Shu Shien-Siu, the former president of National Tsing Hua University and Minister of Science and Technology. After Shu became the Minister of Science and Technology in 1973, he traveled to the United States, Europe, and Japan to learn and study their conditions of the development of science and technology. In 1976, Shu came up with the idea of building a science and technology park like that of Silicon Valley. President Chiang Ching-kuo proposed to build the park in Longtan District because of the potential future benefits that could be drawn from National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology and the military. However, Shu argued that the technology and science park should not be close to the military as the primary goal of the founding of the park is to expand the size of private economy and creative vitality of Taiwan. Shu's idea was to build the park in Hsinchu next to the National Tsing Hua University and the (then) National Chiao Tung University like the Silicon Valley, which is adjacent to Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley.