September 17, 2004
Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-hsiang, speaking at the opening of Taiwan Nano Tech 2004, a forum for Taiwan's nanotechnology community held in early September, said that following Taiwan's development as a Green Silicon Island, the nanotechnology revolution will be of great importance to the country's future industrial development. Shih stated that once Taiwan develops its nanotech strengths, innovations based on this technology will be essential to numerous high-tech sectors in Taiwan, including the electronics, memory technology, display, optotelecommunications, biotechnology and energy industries.
Shih also pointed out that over 400 Taiwanese companies have invested in nanotech
R&D or products and that the nation's semiconductor giants Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and United Microelectronics Co. have already utilized nano-grade manufacturing processes for mass production.
Shih went on to warn of the appearance on the market of products boasting of nanotech features, but which in fact merely exploit the "nano" term superficially. He said that this would affect this nascent industry negatively and pointed out that the industry has reached a consensus on instituting a formal labeling system for high-quality nanotech products.
Also speaking at the forum's opening ceremony, Taiwan's vice president Annette Lu pointed out that the government's efforts to promote nanotechnology have already seen great success, with 186 companies posting a combined production value of
NTD 70 billion currently pursuing nanotech
R&D. Lu said she hopes the number of companies will rise to 800 and reach a total production value of
NTD 300 billion by 2008. The Ministry of Economic Affairs also predicts that the production value of nanotechnology-related industries and fields will reach
NTD 300 billion in Taiwan by 2008.
(Central News Agency)
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