In southernmost Taiwan, an industrial park is developing the country's green biotechnology strength.

For an island nation like Taiwan with scarce natural resources and limited fertile land, advanced technologies and their business potential play a crucial role in national development. In order to enhance the knowledge-based economy, beginning with the establishment of the Hsinchu Science Park in 1980 in northwestern Taiwan as a high-tech production base, the country has worked hard to develop science parks to promote businesses focusing on research and development (R&D). In the southernmost county of Pingtung, a biotech industrial park is now being developed to focus on the agricultural or "green" biotech sector. On a 233-hectare base, most of which was formerly owned by the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corp. in Changjhih Township, the Pingtung Agricultural Biotechnology Park (PABP) opened in 2003 and now houses 50 companies. The park intends to add 70 more over the next five years to reach its planned capacity of 120 firms.

According to the National Science Council, in 2007 the total industrial production value of three of the island's major science parks--Hsinchu, Central Taiwan and Southern Taiwan--saw a 12.3 percent rise from the previous year and reached NT$1.96 trillion (US$64.3 billion) to claim about 14.5 percent of the national total. The three science parks' production value is expected to rise to more than NT$2.2 trillion (US$72.1 billion) this year. In addition, several other high-tech industrial parks have been opened or are being planned. While integrated circuit and optoelectronic products account for more than 90 percent of the parks' production value, other fields including communications, precision instruments and biotechnology are taking an increasingly bigger share. For example, biotech business revenues increased by 23.5 percent in 2007 from the previous year, a rise second only to the optoelectronics sector. A medical biotech park has been established in Hsinchu County to develop medicines and advanced medical instruments in the "red," or health-related, biotech sector.

The criteria for potential tenants of the park at Pingtung, which falls under the government's Council of Agriculture (COA), emphasize a firm's R&D and innovation capabilities. Chen Jen-pin, the director-general of the park's preparatory office, who holds a doctoral degree in food science from Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, points out that as a whole Taiwan needs to build stronger links between R&D results and their industrial applications. "Taiwan boasts a strong agricultural technology base and we're adding momentum to commercializing the sector," he says. "A cluster of companies is much stronger than a single company as the park integrates resources from business, government and research sectors." Among other research institutions, the COA's Kaohsiung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station, Tajen University and National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) are located nearby the park. A PABP business and academic association has been formed at the R&D office of Tajen, which specializes in pharmaceutical science.

The park includes companies that research and produce in the fields of plant seedlings, livestock and aquaculture breeding, bio-fertilizers, bio-pesticides, animal vaccines and diagnostic kits for animal and plant diseases. Also included are companies working with herbal products including health foods, medicine and cosmetics, as well as those engaged in "molecular farming"--the process of developing and growing genetically modified crops. All of these fields have seen considerable technological development in Taiwan. One of the largest plants of bio-fertilizers and bio-pesticides in Southeast Asia, for instance, is being built by Advanced Green Biotechnology Inc. in the park. Shih Yan-yu, the company's administration manager, says that his firm's R&D personnel will account for one third of its total workforce when its facilities are completed. Shih says the company also plans to build production plants in several Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand in the years ahead.

Tropical Advantage
That priority on business development in tropical places reflects one reason why the Advanced Green headquarters in central Taiwan chose to enter the PABP. "One of the park's great advantages is Pingtung's tropical climate," the park's Chen says. "While the United States, European nations, Japan and other developed countries are located in the temperate zone, major agricultural economies in Asia such as Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia have tropical climates." Hsieh Chi-wan, director of NPUST's R&D Office, spells out more of those advantages for Taiwan. "In some biotech fields such as the making of new drugs, other developed countries have strong traditions and support that are hard to surpass," Hsieh says. "When it comes to agricultural skills, however, such as breeding, crossbreeding and vaccines, we have a superior base of knowledge and practice in the tropical zone." Hsieh's school, which upgraded from an agricultural college in 1997, has a Department of Tropical Agriculture and International Cooperation.
The school is also making major efforts to develop its research centers for testing products and vaccines.

Connection and cooperation with such research organizations, including transfer of patents and technologies, are a major form of support that the PABP offers to the park's enterprises. For example, NPUST's Center for Agriculture and Aquaculture Product Inspection and Certification helps companies in the park with the analysis and testing of their products--mainly health foods--as required for the government's certification and product traceability procedures. Special budgets are available for the park or individual companies within it to propose technical collaborations with universities or other institutions.

One such project this year from Winner Biotechnology Co. aims to produce "healthy eggs" with 20 to 30 percent less cholesterol than normal ones. In another project, Winner plans to look at a microorganism capable of rapidly decomposing chicken feathers into animal feed and plant fertilizers. Wang Ren-yu, Winner's president, points out that while many Taiwanese farmers still hold on to traditional working methods, the rising cost of grain for animal feed and increasingly strict global standards for agricultural products such as prohibitions on the use of antibiotics will make future agriculture more and more reliant on biotech. The sector, he says, promises more effective production without doing harm to the environment.

For Wang, a board member of PABP's business and academic association at Tajen, a big support offered by the park is its efforts to diversify marketing channels by arranging to take companies in the park to domestic and foreign trade fairs. The park's Chen Jen-pin agrees. "Our emerging agricultural biotech enterprises, mostly small and medium-size ones, are in need of marketing resources," Chen says. "It's important to develop foreign markets since Taiwan's market is not so big."

Kevin Jean, general manager of Flux Science Corp., says his business also benefits a lot from previous and planned participation in exhibitions held in foreign countries such as Japan, Thailand and the United States. His company, a provider of cosmetics using antioxidants from the tea plant as a core ingredient, also takes advantage of another of the park's support measures. "We buy raw materials from specific tea growers who receive assistance and subsidies from the COA," Jean says. The tea supply chain is part of a satellite farming system whereby the PABP helps establish links between park enterprises and individual farmers or farmer groups.

Chen points out that this contract model of production represents a shift from traditional agriculture. "In the past, farmers just sold whatever they had harvested," he says. "Now they're working in controlled conditions defined by a contract that usually specifies safety, volume, price and quality of their agricultural products." As a result, there is a stable, quality supply of raw materials for enterprises. Farmers, in addition to securing a stable source of income, can accumulate knowledge and refine their skills in the process of trying to meet the contract requirements. "This new business model enhances our farmers' competitiveness," Chen says.

The park's other support measures for its tenants include help with the recruitment of new employees from neighboring universities and other available sources. Low-interest loans of just 2 percent for up to NT$65 million (US$2.1 million) and 15 years are available from the National Agricultural Bank, which launched services in 2005. The park can also help companies tap available venture capital. However, such resources have also attracted companies that have proven to be less than solid investments, leaving behind problems such as uncleared debts. About 20 companies have left the park since it opened. Chen says that while such rises and falls are perhaps inevitable in the relatively new domain of biotech, the park will adopt more stringent standards for future business applicants.

Regional Balance
NPUST's Hsieh says that in terms of agricultural development, southern Taiwan has a definite advantage over the north given its tropical climate. Thomas Chen, dean of Tajen University's R&D Office, believes that the PABP project in the nation's southernmost county is a significant balance to regional development, which has traditionally favored the north. "My school will do its best to help the park grow," he says. Currently, 16 enterprises that either did not pass the application procedure and want to reapply or have been approved but are waiting to enter the park are allowed to use the facilities at Tajen and undertake further preparations.

Thomas Chen and Hsieh hope that the central and local governments will continue to make solid efforts to develop the PABP. Among other things, as the park gradually improves its facilities, Tajen's Chen suggests that an educational institution should be established for children of domestic and foreign researchers and other residents. Hsieh says that the park might even need to start thinking about expanding soon. Just a 30-minute drive from the Taiwan High Speed Rail station in Kaohsiung, the Pingtung Agricultural Biotechnology Park is becoming increasingly integrated into Taiwan's "one-day living circle"--transportation links that make it possible to travel around the island in one day. At the same time, the many advances of the biotechnology firms based at the park in Pingtung are being increasingly incorporated into the nation's business sector as well as part of everyday life.

Write to Pat Gao at kotsijin@gmail.com