Taiwan may soon allow eight-inch wafer foundries to move to China, officials said yesterday. Upstream petrochemicals, integrated-circuit packaging and testing, and computer assembly systems might also be given the green light later this month, they said.
"The eight-inch wafer is one of the many sectors that will be discussed by a government-led review board for liberalization," an unnamed Ministry of Economic Affairs official was quoted as saying in a local Chinese-language newspaper.
The 17-member review board, comprised of government officials, industry representatives and academics, is scheduled to finalize a new list before the end of November, the official said.
The government is expected to remove restrictions on some 1,900 items, the report said. Nearly 5,300 items are no longer restricted, although some products must pass through a government review process.
The products requiring a review include man-made fiber, automobiles and a variety of electronics goods. Items currently banned include wafer foundries, notebook computers and upstream petrochemical projects.
China-bound investments on some 50 items will remain barred, including major infrastructure projects, military products and aircraft and train components, the report said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Co (
In response to mounting demand from the business sector, the government earlier this month lifted a long-standing ban on direct investment imposed since 1949. It also scrapped a US$50 million ceiling on a single investment projects.
Taiwan businesses have invested some US$70 billion in China since late 1987, when Taipei opened civil exchanges across the Strait.
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