Government warned to limit technology transfers

Experts and academics yesterday urged Vice Premier Wu Rong-i (吳榮義) to establish a special committee to allow the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Ministry of the National Defense to control the migration of technology to China and construct strategies to implement the government's restrictions on the export of state-of-the-art technology.

In a forum sponsored by Taiwan Advocates (群策會) yesterday, participants called on the government to face up to the problems highlighted by the recent investigation of United Microelectronics Corp's (聯電) alleged investment in China and act to prevent a repeat. Otherwise, they warned, Taiwan's semiconductor industries will soon lose their competitiveness to China and vanish with the next three years.

"The Taiwanese people can't imagine just how badly the Taiwan's economy is bleeding because of the government's open policies that permit semiconductor manufacturers to move westward," said Lo Cheng-fang (羅正方), director of the Satellite Informatics Research Center at National Cheng Kung University.

"Three years ago, Taiwan nearly monopolized the global semiconductor market and the industry was a money-spinner for Taiwan," Lo said. "However, three years on, it's ironic to note that Taiwan helped China to build a semiconductor kingdom out of nothing."

Lo stressed that the worst-case scenario would be for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co's (台積電) nanotechnology and 12-inch wafer factory to be forced to move to China if the government does not take steps to stop Taiwanese corporations from offering techniques to Chinese counterparts at no cost.

"We have to recognize that Taiwan and China are competitors in the semiconductor industry, and by no means do we produce complementary parts," Lo said.

During the forum, the director of the research department of Taiwan Advocates, Chou Mei-li (周美里), released the results of an opinion poll on the UMC probe.

Chou said that only 27 percent of respondents agreed with UMC chairman Robert Tsao's (曹興誠) ads in which he asked prosecutors to halt their investigation. About 72 percent of respondents thought the government should prevent state-of-the-art technology from moving to China by implementing effective restrictions.

Tony Su (蘇啟明), convener of the Taiwan Economics and Technology Thinktank, and a chief engineer at Weltrend Semiconductor Inc (偉詮電子), said allowing Taiwanese companies to invest billions of dollars in China to build sensitive technology would spell economic doom for this country.

"It is untenable for local semiconductor owners to claim that they will lose their competitive edge if they do not follow suit," Su said. "The techniques and the professional staff count most. Many old factories still produce awesome products because of their excellent research and development."

Wu Tsung-hsin (吳宗信), a professor of mechanical engineering at National Chiao-tung University, said he was worried by the number of undergraduate and graduate students who said they plan to work in semiconductor companies in Shanghai and Suzhou when they graduate.

"Such a trend has even impacted the mentality of the younger generation and their identification to the nation," he said.