Taiwan's science park woes get nasty: government thumbs nose at courts

Just when it looked like the problems at Taiwan's science parks couldn't get any worse, they did. Now there's a fight brewing between the Taiwanese government and courts. A few weeks ago we reported that a Taiwanese court had halted the development of the 4th phase of the Central Taiwan Science Park because of environmental issues. The 4th phase is also known as the "Erlin Park" (see "Major setback for Central Taiwan Science Park"). One would think that a court ruling to stop the project. Not in Taiwan.

According to several news reports, Taiwan's science minister, C.Y. Chu, has said that development won't stop and that the government continues to try to attract companies to the Erlin Park. It occurs to this writer that not many rational companies are likely to do that under these circumstances.

"Unless the Supreme Administrative Court makes a final ruling to revoke the permit for the project, or the Cabinet decides to shut it down before that, the NSC [National Science Council] will continue the project according to the law," Chu said.

The Erlin park was having big commercial problems even before this. For example, AU Optronics Corp., a major LCD flat panel maker and the expected largest investor in the park, had postponed investment plans for Erlin.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. This drama isn't over.

for more news on this topic,see:

http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNews_Detail.aspx?Type=aALL&ID=20121029...

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2012/10/30/2003546456