NSTC hopes new platform will cultivate smart tech companies

Taipei, Aug. 22 (CNA) The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) said Thursday it expects new government-incubated enterprises similar to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) to emerge out of a proposed platform for mediating the needs of the service sectors with high-tech industries.

According to the NSTC, a total of NT$36 billion (US$1.12 billion) will be invested in a project called "Greater South Smart-Tech Industrial Ecosystem" for the southern development between 2025-2029.

NSTC head Wu Cheng-wen (吳誠文) said the plans aligned with President Lai Ching-te's (賴清德) policy of enhancing Taiwan's regional balance and riding on the growth of the industrial parks in southern Taiwan.

The budget will be distributed to talent training in the existing educational system and upgrading the current government-built computing power to 480 petaflops, or 25 times the existing 19 petaflops, in the next four years, according to Su Chen-kang (蘇振綱), the council's deputy head.

The main focus, however, will be establishing a "platform," Wu said, to mediate the needs of sectors other than the tech sectors with the country's chip design and manufacturing companies to develop artificial intelligence (AI) application systems that cater to the local needs.

The platform will be based in Shalun Science City in Tainan, which will be the hub connecting several southern industrial parks in Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung, according to the council.

"The supply side of the hardware manufacturing in the IC industry is highly developed in Taiwan, but most of them produce chips according to the needs and specifications provided by foreign companies," Wu said.

"What we aim to do with this platform is to help mediate the needs of the country's traditional and service sectors with Taiwan's existing advanced tech companies to have Taiwan's own AI systems and applications," he added.

Su cited the medical field and restaurants that are already showing signs of manpower shortage as examples that might benefit from this platform.

Wu said subsidies would be provided to both those small and medium IC design companies and start-ups -- which have the skills but no funding -- and those sectors that needed the tailor-made ICs.

New products and services would be developed out of this integration of software and hardware ends, and "new spinoff companies can grow from this platform like how TSMC and UMC emerged [from the Industrial Technology Research Institute in the 1980s]," Wu said.

He added that many Taiwanese tech companies have shown their interest in investing in the platform, without giving names.

The platform will be first set up in southern Taiwan to leverage the resources of the southern tech bases and to respond to the needs of the local industries such as automotive components, smart agriculture , catering and medicine, "but it will be developed country-wide later on," Wu said.