A new high-tech industrial park in Taiwan has attracted massive investment despite initial skepticism.

A landscape of sugar cane and sweet potato farms is fast changing into lines of slick towers, which will house the latest in cutting-edge technology.
The speed of the development and the rate of companies willing to sign on to the Central Taiwan Science Park project has impressed its backers and confounded critics.
Lai Ying-hsi, chief of the Taichung government’s economic affairs department, said 72 companies ready to invest 1.04 trillion Taiwan dollars ($31.04 billion) have won approvals, among them industry leaders including Au Optronics Corp, ProMOS Technologies and US-based Corning.
Lai said it was Taichung’s stable electricity and steady water supply that eventually convinced the authorities to proceed.
Taichung boasts one of the biggest thermal power plants in Asia while chronic water shortages have dogged science and technology parks elsewhere on the island.
Yang Wen-ke, deputy chief of the park’s preparatory committee, said the rapid pace of its development — in an industry which is consistently tied to tight construction deadlines to deliver next-generation products — was a big factor in winning over more firms.