On 12th October 2006, Premier Su Tseng-chang, visited Ping-Tung Agriculture Biotechnology Park (PABP) and viewed a brief presentation about the current progress of the park’s construction and park enterprises by the Preparatory Office of PABP. PABP has already approved 39 agriculture biotechnological factories’ applications during a short period of time. PABP is going to officially start operations on 15th December 2006 with the completion of Park Infrastructure and Park Administration building. Also, 6 manufacturers have already established their own customized factories at the site. In the first stage, 14 Enterprises will enter to the Park and invest in April next year. At the same time, there are many Japanese and American enterprises that have expressed a willingness to investment in the Park. Based on these achievements, Minister Su praised the performance of COA, the Preparatory Office of PABP, the Southern Engineering Office of Construction and Planning Agency, and Ping-tung County.
Premier Su expressed that the agricultural sector of Taiwan plays a key role in economic growth. The agricultural sector has experienced successive transition from traditional agriculture to mechanized agricultural processes, the latter of which highly increases output especially in recent years, agriculture focuses on the higher quality and safety, and has a well-know product rating internationally. From “Banana Kingdom” in the early period to the high-value agricultural and fishery products in the more recent period, such as Oolong tea, Phalaenopsis, Black Pearl wax apple and Taiwan tilapia , cobia, etc, are all well-known. However, due to the limited farmland and human resources in Taiwan, the production scale and costs are difficult to compete with the countries with plenty of lands and workers.

Since Taiwan joined the WTO in January 2002, Taiwan has been receiving pressures from the large quantity of agricultural products from overseas, imposing difficult challenges on the traditional agriculture. The reason the government established the Agriculture Biotechnology Park is to have the locomotive engine effect to lead the traditional agriculture to combine with the high-tech agriculture, and to create additional value by information economics, in order to expedite the upgrade of the development of agriculture management and to enhance the competitiveness of agriculture in the international market.

Premier Su not only personally visited all completed Park infrastructure projects and Park Administration building in the PABP, but also gained further understanding in the under-the-construction first-staged standardized factories, the land and self-built facilities by the Park Enterprises, and the upcoming contracted construction of accommodation facilities. In the meantime, the representatives of the Park Enterprises which includes Taikong, Favorgen, Dahjia Excellent-Algae, Pingjiunong offered several suggestions during the presentation. Premier Su responded: it is difficult to operate a biotechnological business. Government will provide essential assistance in finance, technology, human resource, and marketing, etc, during the developmental stage through PABP administration system. This is to assist our agricultural biotechnological business to become competitive in the domestic and international markets.

Council of Agriculture emphasized that the software and hardware constructions of PABP are proceeding successfully with efforts from agencies concerned. Due to the excellent investment conditions and services of PABP, 39 agriculture biotechnological factories have been approved to gain entry to the park. Recently, many Japanese and American agricultural biotechnological enterprises are also interested in investment. The famous domestic ranch group, Kuang-chuan, also decided to apply as a Park Enterprise to develop the high-tech products of agriculture and livestock industries.

By October 2007, PABP will have a capacity of 20 agricultural biotechnological enterprises for investment and operation and over 1,000 employees. In addition, the diversified farm products supply system, which is under the implementation of COA, will expedite the modernization of the agricultural seeker and increase the benefit for farmers.