Business council hails ProMOS ruling

The US-Taiwan Business Council said on Friday it welcomed Taiwan's approval for ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技) to build an advanced 0.18-micron chip manufacturing facility in China.

Rupert Hammond-Chambers, the council's president, said it was "an important and timely decision."

He said it was vital that leading Taiwanese companies like ProMOS be able to actively compete and offer their expertise in all markets around the world, including China's.

He said, however, that "it remains critical for the Taiwan government to develop a clear, consistent process for such investments, and to finalize and release new guidelines for the semiconductor industry to replace those that expired in December 2005."

Hammond-Chambers urged the government to remove the 40 percent equity cap on Taiwan investments in China.

He said that present barriers to cross-strait investment are hurting Taiwanese companies -- and by extension their US partners -- while a liberalized and transparent cross-strait economic relationship would be beneficial no only for Taiwan but also for the many partner companies that rely on Taiwan to research, design and manufacturer a myriad of goods.

ProMOS Technologies was the second local firm to get the green light for such investment after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電).