| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立暨南國際大學 === 公共行政與政策學系 === 95 === Against the vision of turning Taiwan into a “Green Silicon Island,” science industrial parks are readily assigned the role of powerhouse for carrying out national policy on forwarding scientific development. As President Chen Shui-bian has pledged to develop a high-tech corridor along Taiwan’s west coast, establishments patterned after the Hsinchu Science Park have been mapped out for central and southern Taiwan. Emphasis is placed on semiconductors in the north, optoelectronics in the south and nanotechnology in the central part of the island. The aim is to foster technological innovation across Taiwan’s industrial base by ushering in a multitude of high-tech ventures and professionals. High-tech industry taking roots in Taiwan is also expected to help advance the island’s overall economic development. Over the years, Taiwan’s science-based industrial parks have nurtured a good number of high-tech industries and companies. They have in turn carved a name for themselves on the international arena.
Science park administrations, placed under the National Science Council (NSC), Executive Yuan, are currently charged with management of the parks and provision of supportive duties and services. Under an ongoing drive toward revamping government structure, however, these administrations will be moved away from the NSC. Both the development and management of science parks will be placed instead under a new industrial park authority that itself will be an agency of the would-be Ministry of Economics and Trade, to be restructured from the existing Ministry of Economic Affairs. That is, all science parks, export processing zones and other industrial zones will be governed by one single executive public body.
Several potential drags lie ahead. For starters, science park administrations have already incurred substantial losses from development of new parks in line with national policy. This must cast in doubt the financial self-sufficiency envisioned by the government’s draft bill on executive public bodies. Will the flexibility accorded to executive public bodies in personnel and financial management prove effective for resolving the financial plight in place? Is it plausible to transfer all the duties now handled by science park administrations to this would-be executive public body? Given the nature of government power attached to such duties, is it entirely proper to place them in the hands of an executive public body based on guidelines laid down by the Executive Yuan?
Taiwan’s national competitiveness has declined over the years. Will the scheme to turn science park administrations, whose responsibility has been managing “windows on Taiwan’s economy,” into executive public bodies prove a boost to government efficiency? Is it possible that such a move may conversely deter businesses from expanding their investments here? This essay seeks to determine the viability of the policy on transforming science park administrations into executive public bodies from both financial and operational perspectives. A conclusion will be drawn, and recommendations will be made, with the hope that the policy on creating executive public bodies can generate the desired benefits and that all the complementary measures and criteria of appraisal can be placed in order without fail.
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