As the race for Taoyuan mayor heats up, the Phase 2 expansion of the Youshi Industrial Park is being held up as a record of achievement — but it has also become ammunition for the opposition to attack the administration over lagging progress, and it is bad news for firms on the site.

• Speaking in Yangmei, Chang San-cheng said TSMC plans to build a plant at the third phase of the Longtan Science Park, and that its upstream and downstream supply chain could also move into the Phase 2 expansion of the Youshi Industrial Park in Yangmei.
• DPP candidate Huang Shih-chieh countered that the project was launched by former mayor Cheng Wen-tsan in 2020 and submitted to the Ministry of the Interior at the end of 2022 — before news of TSMC's move emerged.
• Huang said Chang has convened only two project task force meetings in his three and a half years in office, leaving the plan effectively at a standstill, and is only bringing it up now that an election is near.
• Firms report that roads in Phase 1 of Youshi are poorly laid out, access is inconvenient, and there is no wastewater treatment plant — problems that have gone unresolved.

Outlook: Local investment promotion and the progress of TSMC supply chain firms moving in will continue to be a main battleground in the Taoyuan mayoral race in the near term.