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Controls should focus on technology, not capital, Ma says

President-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who has pledged closer economic ties with China, said his government will first assess which technologies can be exported to China before determining whether local high-tech firms can establish a larger presence there.

The new government will listen to experts’ opinions on the matter, Ma told the Central News Agency in an interview on Friday, promising that he will “respect professionalism and there will not be many political considerations.”

Supporting the removal of a restriction that limits the amount Taiwanese companies may invest in China to up to 40 percent of their net worth, Ma said that government controls should focus only on technologies, not capital.

HINDER DEVELOPMENT

Ma said that if Taiwan is not the sole source of some technologies that are bound for China, the government’s restrictions only hinder the development of Taiwanese companies in that market.

He said that the US government, which adheres to the Wassenaar Arrangement on export controls of technologies, had allowed Intel Corp, the world’s biggest chipmaker, to invest in China.

This shows that 12-inch wafer manufacturing technology is no longer considered a key technology, he said, referring to Intel’s decision to construct a 12-inch wafer fabrication facility in China.

WASSENAAR

Ma said that although Taiwan is not a signatory of the Wassenaar Arrangement, his government would still adopt the convention used by 40 countries as a standard.

The agreement — which was first signed by 33 countries, including the US, in Wassenaar, the Netherlands, in the middle of 1996 — is aimed at controlling the exports of conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies to countries perceived as threats to peace.

At present, Taiwan allows local firms to invest in 8-inch wafer plants in China, which Ma said is no longer an advanced technology there.

Executives of local semiconductor companies told him that if Taiwan had lifted the ban on technology transfers two years ago, their market shares would have grown substantially, Ma said.
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