Premier Lai Ching-te today unveiled the government’s plan to address the land shortage hampering Taiwan’s investment environment, saying the government will provide 1,442 hectares of land for industrial use by 2021. The demand for industrial-use land is expected to grow by 1,266 hectares.

Speaking at a press conference held at the Executive Yuan, the premier outlined three specific strategies and 12 measures while explaining the strategy formulation process and how the policies will be implemented.

The first strategy, making state-owned land available at preferential rates, consists of four measures: A one-stop service window will be established to match investors to available land. Government-owned industrial parks—including those under the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), the Ministry of Science and Technology, and local governments—will provide 371 hectares for immediate use by tenant companies, with MOEA industrial parks offering land leases with rent-free incentives for the first two years. The Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program will be used to help local governments build or renovate industrial park public facilities, upgrading 435 hectares for industrial use. The MOEA’s program office will work with the Financial Supervisory Commission and financial institutions to help companies secure preferential business loans.

As for the second strategy to open up idle private land, Premier Lai said that in order to avoid land hoarding by interested parties or having land put to uses at odds with industrial zoning, the government has revised the Statute for Industrial Innovation to include a penalty and auction mechanism, providing for a period of guidance to encourage voluntary land use, to be followed by fines and ultimately compulsory auction where necessary.

With the passage of the revised statute, this compulsory system to compel land use will only be adopted where plots have remained idle for at least three years. Once given formal notice and guidance, landowners will have two years to act voluntarily. If after two years no investment in a plot is forthcoming, then the government will levy fines. Only where fines prove ineffective will the government step in to force an auction. The premier made clear that this ultimate step will not be decided by deadline but rather made on a case-by-case basis.

The second strategy contains four more measures in addition to the above: provide professional brokerage services to negotiate reasonable land prices based on market value; compile an inventory of actual land prices to prevent speculation; when new industrial park land is sold or leased, establish a mechanism to return land to the market to keep plots from falling into disuse in the future; and provide preferential loans for setting up factories, while using financial tools for managing idle space. These five measures together are expected to make 589 hectares available to investors.

The third strategy will develop new industrial land and upgrade existing zones. The first measure will provide 128 hectares by using a portion of the forward-looking infrastructure budget to assist local governments in developing locally situated industrial zones. A second measure involves central guidance of local governments and private-sector industry to develop upwards of 391 hectares in new industrial zones based on actual need. The final measure will allow for approximately 1.49 million square meters of new floorspace in existing urban industrial zones by encouraging above and underground development.