The government should further deregulate China-bound investment activities and allow local businesses to make more use of the cheap labor and resources in China, a leading industrialist said yesterday.
"The government always says it wants to boost the economy, but in fact, that is the business of businesspeople like me," said Hsu Wen-long (許文龍), chairman of the nation's second-largest manufacturer of flat panels, Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子).
"What the government can do is to lift the bans restricting certain investments and give companies as much freedom as possible to expand their business," Hsu said.
Hsu, a national policy adviser to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), made the remarks in a speech to a gathering held by the Taiwan Economy and Industry Association (台灣產經建研社), a Democratic Progressive Party think tank.
The 76-year-old tycoon said the government should not be afraid of industry migrating across the Taiwan Strait.
The government has tended to restrain businesspeople from investing in China out of concern that such migration might hollow out Taiwan's industries and slash its competitiveness. Businesses that plan to invest NT$1.7 billion (US$51.6 million) or more in China are required to register with the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
The ministry's Investment Commission approved 10,105 China-bound investment projects worth US$7.7 billion last year. It greenlighted 554 applications worth US$1.29 billion in the first three months of this year, a 16 percent increase from the same period last year.
Hsu's call for loosening restrictions on China-bound investment could be a hint that his Tainan-based conglomerate is seeking to expand some of its business in China.
Chi Mei has previously said that it was looking for a location in China to set up an assembly plant.
Chi Mei's rivals, including South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co, AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) and Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (中華映管) have already done so.
Angus Liang (梁志豪), an anal-yst with Capital Securities Corp (群益證券) said in terms of cost considerations, Chi Mei has to jump on the China bandwagon.
"Although Chi Mei is doing good business now, it can save more by moving its downstream operations to China," Liang said. "I think that if it were not for political considerations, Hsu would have taken action already."
Hsu yesterday also urged the government to help cultivate more talent for the thin-fil transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT-LCD) sector, which he said is an exceptionally important industry to the nation.
Despite the huge business potential for flat-panel displays, Hsu said he wasn't interested in creating his own brand of LCD TVs.
"Our advantage is in manufacturing quality products for internationally renowned brand names such as Sony," Hsu said. "This is the core business that we will still focus on."
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