Gov't to Push Conversion of Science Parks Into Green Parks

Taipei, Dec. 3, 2010 (CENS)--The government will push the conversion of the four science-based industrial parks in Taiwan to green science parks by encouraging enterprises in the parks to have their factory buildings pass the certification of smart green factories, a move which will boost the opportunities for procurement by foreign buyers, according to the program for pushing smart green buildings passed by the Executive Yuan (the Cabinet) yesterday (Dec. 2).

The program envisions the establishment of a graded certification system for green stores from 2011. In the initial stage, the government will earmark NT$50 million of fund for encouraging the island's 2,000 convenience stores into green stores featuring energy and water conservation.

In the second stage, public facilities for building costing NT$50 million or more to build will have to embrace the design of smart green building starting from 2012, half a year ahead of the original schedule. The requirement will apply to great majority of public construction projects; 82% of public construction projects this year cost NT$50 million or more.

The program calls for the input of NT$3.236 billion by the government by 2015, which is expected to induce NT$28.4 billion of investment and NT$752.9 billion of output value, in addition to 3.82 million metric tons of reduction in carbon emission and 243,000 job vacancies.

The program will benefit an extensive scope consisting of eight major categories, security monitoring, indoor-environment quality (temperature and humidity control), automatic control (automatic sensing and monitoring), air conditioning, lighting, energy-saving home appliances, and water conservation.

Premier Wu Den-yi instructed related government units to incorporate green building into the building code. For instance, the government can grant extra floor area ratio to urban renewal projects which embrace green-building design.

((PL)) (GE)