No matter who wins the presidential election on Saturday, the new government should accelerate efforts to help enhance Taiwanese high-tech companies' competitiveness and ease its grip on cross-strait trade, industry representatives said yesterday.
"The government should focus on improving the investment environment, including bettering the nation's infrastructure," said Matthew Miao (
The decades-long ban on transportation links across the Taiwan Strait has already resulted in the migration of Taiwanese companies and engineers to China, because their international customers find it more convenient to meet in China, he said.
Miao made the remarks on the sidelines of the launch of a book on Taiwan's high-tech industry development, and stressed that he had no political position.
Another industry leader said Taiwan needed the China market, and labor migration to China helped boost Taiwan's competitiveness.
"China is a marketplace that has a voracious appetite for everything, including chips, and it also can offer cheap labor to help lower costs," said John Hsuan (
Hsuan refrained from talking about political issues, but he suggested that the new government should first look carefully at Taiwan's industries and then prioritize where the government's resources should go.
"We don't have much time to waste on waiting," he warned. He did not elaborate.
UMC has told investors that the company is in no hurry to build foundries in China, as the company has been keeping close ties with Chinese chipmaker He Jian Technology (Suzhou) Co (和艦科技).
To help the nation's semiconductor industry tap the expanding Chinese market, Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) administration announced in 2002 that the government would allow domestic chipmakers to open up to three eight-inch wafer plants in China by the end of next year, but only if they use equipment that has been phased out in Taiwan and expand investments in their domestic 12-inch plants.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC,
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