Government may liberalize rules for 8-inch wafer plants

Taiwan may soon allow semiconductor and petrochemical sectors to invest in China, Chinese-language media reported yesterday, without citing sources.

The reports said the government will permit China-bound investment in 8-inch semiconductor wafer plants and upstream petrochemical projects such as naphtha crackers, and will raise the limits on such investments to between NT$20 billion (US$572 million) and NT$22 billion, effective Jan. 1.

A high-ranking government official declined to elaborate on the reports, saying details of the proposal would be made public before the end of the month.

"The concept was probably initiated by the private sector. The Executive Yuan has not finalized the plan yet," Chiou I-jen (邱義仁), secretary general of the Executive Yuan, said yesterday.

Last month the government scrapped a US$50-million limit on individual investments headed for China, but it still bars companies in more than 190 industries, including notebook computers and semiconductors, from manufacturing in China.