Hsinchu County and Hsinchu City may soon merge their administrations to help the region compete in the international market. Premier Su Tseng-chang expressed his support for the merger proposal at the opening of a new industrial innovative school at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University on Tuesday.
The premier said merging the city and county will strengthen Hsinchu's global standing, especially in the semiconductor industry. Hsinchu Science Park has developed extensively in the past decades, and the merger would strengthen the supply chain that the tech park relies on. This increase in efficiency will benefit Taiwan's semiconductor industry.
Su says that the pandemic has created chaos throughout the world, and affected semiconductor supply chains. Taiwan has managed to control the spread of the virus and Su says that the world is looking to learn from Taiwan.
Taiwan is a small island, lacking some of the resources of other nations, but the premier says it is full of talented workers, whose commitment to further development allows Taiwan to compete against much larger forces.
Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-chien says he's grateful for Su's support of the Hsinchu merger. There are still some KMT politicians who believe further debate is necessary before deciding the fate of Hsinchu, but Lin hopes the approval of Su will help win them over.