Technopolis and Regional Development : A Review of Development Experience in Hsinchu, Taiwan

Asian countries frequently use strategic investments, typi-cally by central government, to develop technology-basedclusters or cities to serve as growth engines for regionaldevelopment. Science parks are generally perceived as localor regional growth centers (Bass 1998; Oh 1995). Throughpublic investments in science parks, both industrial advance-ment and local development of related industries and busi-nesses are promoted. In order to promote national economy and balancedregional population growth, the central government ofTaiwan had developed a series of Major DevelopmentInitiative projects since 1970s. One of them was the estab-lishment of Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park (HSIP) in1980 aiming at developing Hsinchu into a high-tech researchbase with high quality, strong growth and high efficiency. Ina comprehensive assessment of Hsinchu technopolis, Lin(1997) concluded that HSIP had significantly promoted thenational and regional economy, yet, the spontaneous spatialdevelopment pattern of Hsinchu technopolis was not exactlyas planned in the Comprehensive Development Plan ofHsinchu Science City. Lin (1997) also concluded that itwould be more reasonable to evaluate the long-term impactsafter at least 25 years. In 2011, the total HSIP sales reached