Sinshih District was once an agricultural settlement. During the economic transfor- mation, many renowned textile and food processing factories, and other traditional industries, such as Toyobo, Mingda Textiles, Tunyun Textiles, De Licacy Industrial Company, Chiaher Industrial Company, Duroyal, Uni-President Sinshih factory, Haw-Di-I Niutoupai Shacha Sauce, and the recent Bifido, Pepsico Taiwan, and Duroyal Ice Cream have all established manufacturing facilities in Sinshih District. In the late 1980s, tradi- tional industries gradually gave way to high tech industries, which became the mainstay of Taiwanese economy. In 1995, Tainan Science Park (later renamed as Southern Taiwan Science Park) was established, greatly enhancing the environmental quality around the science park, eliminating the persistent flooding problem, and solving the financial crisis that had plagued the township office.
Since 1976, Sinshih District has implemented the Sinshih District Urbanisation Plan ac- cording to the Urban Planning Law. The third overall review is currently underway. Since Sinshih District lacks usable land and is not conducive to future growth, the overall review has thus shifted focus towards the northern side of the train station with plans to designate it as the North Station Special Zone for future development, increasing usable lands available to the Urbanisation program. During the second overall review, the zone expropriation project of 36.7 hectares of land from Sinhe and Shenei was passed. In addition to building roads, parking, and other public infrastructure, 1000 Ping (3306 square meters, or 35,583 square feet) was reserved for government agencies such as district offices and the Tainan City Government has already completed development. Construction firms have also submitted various proposals. In place of the original Mingda Textile Plant (Industry Site 5), other than public facilities such as parks and roads, residential building construction has largely been completed in the area. Additionally, the first Public Cemetery next to Provincial Highway 1 has also been moved. The land was then made available for tree planting to make the area green. Plans have been made to convert this land into Sinshih District ecological and recreational park. As the aforementioned projects were completed successfully, future prospects and potential of Sinshih are extremely optimistic. These projects are also expected to exert positive influence on the quality of living environments in the area.