Taiwan government officials and company executives began talks on relaxing curbs on investment in China, which could allow chipmakers and notebook computer makers to move factories to the mainland and cut costs as demand stalls.
Taiwan, which scrapped a US$50 million limit on individual investments in China earlier this month, still bars companies in more than 190 industries, including notebook computers and semiconductors, from manufacturing in the mainland.
"It's good news if they relax the measures," said Sherry Yang, a spokeswoman at Quanta Computer Inc (
Taiwan's electronics makers are looking to cut costs -- the minimum wage can be more than 10 times lower in China -- and tap into a market of 1.3 billion consumers as demand from the US, Europe and Japan drops. China's economy expanded 7 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, while Taiwan's shrank 4.21 percent.
Letting more companies shift factories to the mainland "would help them cut costs and use production bases in China to expand in the China market," said David Lee, an economist at Entrust Securities Co (永昌證券).
"China's going to become one of the biggest profit generators for Taiwan's companies."
The government plans to let Quanta and other notebook makers manufacture "low-end" notebook computers in China after the review, the Chinese language media reported Thursday, citing Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Hsin-yi (
Among the executives attending the talks is Rock Hsu (許勝雄), chairman of Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), Johnney Shih (施崇堂), chairman of Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), and Chien Min-jen (簡明仁), chairman of First International Computer Inc (大眾電腦), said Chang Ming-pin, a spokesman at the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
The panel, which also includes government officials and academics, plans to make recommendations to the government by the end of December, Chang said.
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