Industrial Development in Chung Hsing New Village

In 2009, The Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of China set up an industrial innovation park at November in  Chung Hsing New Village(中興新村), a town in Nantou County. It gained a part of the local residents’ support and at the meantime was opposed by some of the ones.

Chung Hsing New Village is home to the Taiwan Provincial Government. Since the dormitories and buildings of government officials are belonged to the government, the town organization was completely planned by the government. The town was designed in a British way in which streets and roads are uniform and gardens are technically built to be a space for U turn. The design made Chung Hsing New Village the first model town of Taiwan in which public facilities are the most advanced. Besides, it remains a couple of cultural heritages since the age when the government of Republic of China arrived Taiwan such as the building of the Taiwan Provincial Government, White House- domed Chung Hsing Hall, government officials’ red- roof houses, bomb shelter No.39, the “Taiwan well known” lotus pond, the magnificent three- building Taiwan Provincial Common History Historica, to name a few.

In these ten years, there have been plans for an industrial innovation park to be set up in the planned zone in the town. The government hopes that the special innovation park will help to achieve industrial upgrades and innovation among bio-technologies in central Taiwan. The ministry has invited domestic research institutes, such as the Institute for Information Industry and the Industrial Technology Research Institute, to open their innovation and incubation centers in the planned zone in Chung Hsing New Village. Industrial investment in the park and the research center are expected to generate a production value of between NT$15 billion and NT$60 billion annually.

The development plan faces two quite different sound. Some of the local residents welcome it, for there is less and less jobs and business in Chung Hsing New Village since the Taiwan Provincial Government was reduced by Central Government. They hope the arrival of the industrial innovation park will bring back prosperity of the early age. While the other culturally conscious residents stand out to oppose against the plan. It is because the Ministry of Science and Technology wanted to impose more complete land for the industrial park, which will reduce cost of development and increase profit. However, it is necessarily going to pull down the original construction including those historical heritage, greeny elegant roadside trees, and well- designed community.

Now, the park has come into the town and attempt to expand its land. To cater to the expectations of both sides, the government should scout the location detailedly, understanding the existing construction in order not to destroy the appearance of the town when practicing the plan. As for the opposing sounds, keeping fighting against the government is not pragmatic at all. On the contrary, they should not only help the government realize the importance of the cultural heritages but also associate with the government about the approach of new construction with cultural heritages being preserved.