Spending on research and development (R&D) made up almost 4 percent of Taiwan’s GDP last year, the highest proportion in the country’s history, National Science and Technology Council data showed.
R&D spending nationwide totaled NT$898 billion (US$27.8 billion) last year, accounting for 3.96 percent of Taiwan’s GDP, compared with 3.77 percent in 2021, the data showed.
R&D expenditure rose 9.4 percent from a year earlier, the council said, adding that spending in technology development totaled NT$654 billion, the largest portion of R&D spending, up 10.1 percent from a year earlier.
Fundamental research accounted for NT$68.5 billion of total R&D spending last year, up 12.1 percent from a year earlier, while about NT$175.4 billion went to applied research, a rise of 6 percent from a year earlier, it said.
The private sector spent NT$772.9 billion on R&D in the year, up 11 percent from a year earlier, while the government spent NT$125.1 billion, an increase of 0.6 percent from the previous year, the data showed.
In 2018, private enterprises in Taiwan accounted for more than 80 percent of national R&D spending for the first time, with the ratio increasing every year since then and reaching 85.5 percent last year, serving as the major driver of R&D activity in the country, the council said.
The data showed that 82.5 percent of R&D spending by enterprises came from large firms, or those with a workforce of more than 500.
In terms of science parks supervised by the council, firms in the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區) in Taichung and the Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學園區) in Tainan accounted for 47.6 percent of all R&D spending by enterprises in Taiwan last year, up from 39.1 percent in 2018, the data showed.
The science parks house many semiconductor manufacturers, computer and peripherals suppliers, communications gadget developers, optoelectronics producers, precision machinery makers and biotech technology developers, with semiconductor firms spending the most on R&D and pushing up expenditure in the past few years, the council said.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its