Following a record year last year, the combined revenue of the nation’s major science parks is expected to grow 8.66 percent to more than NT$4 trillion (US$142.5 billion) this year, attributable to a persistent chip crunch and rising demand for 5G applications, automotive and high-performance computing (HPC) devices, the Ministry of Science and Technology said yesterday. Last year, manufacturers in the nation’s three science parks registered “explosive growth” of 22.81 percent in combined revenue, from NT$30.28 billion in 2020 to NT$3.72 trillion, the ministry said in a news release. Semiconductor firms reported the biggest annual growth of 24 percent last year,