Taiwan’s science minister has identified Shalun in Tainan as the site of a planned science park intended to accommodate future advanced semiconductor manufacturing, while setting out a hoped-for timetable for its environmental review.
Wu Cheng-wen, head of the National Science and Technology Council, said on Thursday that he hoped the second stage of the review could be completed by the middle of 2027, allowing development to begin afterwards. The assessment is under way; its completion and outcome are not guaranteed.
The minister said the site could provide space for one-nanometre chip manufacturing as the industry advances, but stressed that the park was not being created solely for that purpose. Robotics, space technology, advanced medicine and biotechnology could also be accommodated, subject to the rules governing science parks.
Wu did not confirm a company that would operate a one-nanometre fabrication plant there. Preparing land for a possible future factory is different from confirming a manufacturer, a construction timetable for a fab or the start of chip production.
From a broad proposal to a named site
Earlier this week, Wu said a large new park was planned in Tainan to help meet demand for one-nanometre facilities. His comments at a semiconductor conference in Taichung pointed to development work in 2027 but did not name Shalun.
At a legislative committee session on Thursday, he clarified that the proposed park was in Shalun and said the feasibility assessment and planning for water and electricity supplies had been completed. He said environmental protection requirements would be taken into account as the project moves through review.
The Shalun Ecological Science Park is not an entirely new idea. Taiwan’s executive approved a preparatory plan in December 2025, and the project had already entered environmental assessment before the minister’s latest remarks. The new statement links that existing proposal more explicitly to space for future one-nanometre manufacturing and gives a target for the review.
A manufacturing process name such as one nanometre is used to describe a generation of chip technology. Although a nanometre is a unit of length, modern process names do not necessarily correspond to the physical size of a transistor. The minister’s comments are about preparing a site, not announcing that the technology is already in production there.
Land, habitat and resources
The proposed development has drawn attention because Shalun’s farmland and grassland support wildlife, including the eastern grass owl. Conservation groups have raised concerns about the loss or fragmentation of habitat and have questioned whether habitat created or managed elsewhere could adequately compensate for changes at the site.
The Southern Taiwan Science Park administration has established an ecological collaboration platform involving government bodies, specialists, community representatives and conservation groups. It describes the platform as a way to develop conservation measures alongside, but separate from, the formal environmental assessment.
Planning has included changes to the proposed layout and consideration of green space and habitat outside the development area. Such measures are intended to reduce or compensate for ecological impacts; their effectiveness remains a matter for scrutiny and is not established by the existence of the plans alone.
Water and electricity are also central to the review. Environmental advocates have questioned the demands the park could place on regional resources, while the park administration has discussed using a mix of supplies, including reclaimed water, over time. Wu said the relevant water and power arrangements had been incorporated into planning with help from the economy ministry.
The coming assessment will examine the development’s effects and proposed safeguards. For now, the mid-2027 date is an official ambition for completing that process, not a finding that the park has passed it or that a particular factory will be built.
Featured image: AI-generated illustration.
