Taipei, Sept. 18, 2008 (CENS)--The third-stage construction of the Nankang Software Park was recently completed and officially made available this Tuesday (Sept. 16).

The third district is developed on 1.5 hectares of land and the two buildings on the district offer a total of 52,000 pings of floor area with 16 stories above ground and five under ground.

According to developer of the park, Century Development Corp., Inc., the buildings in the third district have been 40% booked, and notable enterprises having registered to station in the buildings include Microsoft Taiwan, IBM Taiwan and Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp.

Chairman of the development company, Theodore Huang, said he was confident that the buildings would be completely booked soon. He noted that the new district would bring in the park at least some 60 enterprises, employing around 4,000 workers. The park is estimated to have turnover of over NT$200 billion (US$6.2 billion at US$1:NT$32) a year with the three districts on it.

Huang noted that the park comes up with several incentives, including lower land price relative to nearby luxury neighborhoods, proximity to the just completed Nangkang Exhibition Hall run by the Taipei World Trade Center, and being adjacent to the node of two massive rapid transportation lines. The land price of the Nankgang District has risen to NT$600,000 (US$18,700) from NT$80,000 (US$2,500) per ping 10 years ago. Through, the average price is still lower than that in nearby districts.

The Nangkang District has emerged as a daring neighbor of Taipei City thanks to several major public-work projects including the software park installed here. Taipei Mayor L.B. Hau said at the unveil ceremony of the third district of the park that President Ma Ying-jeou plowed at least NT$60 billion (US$1.8 billion) into Nangkang for infrastructure constructions when he was still the mayor of the Taiwan capital city.

Hau noted that the software park has grown fast and become worldwide known. The Taipei City government, he added, is eager to construct fourth and fifth districts in the park to house more enterprises.

President Ma said at the ceremony that the software park has finally proven its success after nearly 10 years of development and he assured the city government that the central government would do whatever it could to help the city government solve the problems hindering the future development of the software park.

(by Ken Liu)