The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday said it would continue to seek support from lawmakers for its revitalization plan for the DRAM industry.
Minister Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) told the legislature’s Economics Committee that the ministry would continue to lobby for support for the DRAM plan until it is vetoed in a third reading in the legislature.
“DRAM is core to Taiwan’s chip industry and we can’t risk local firms losing their global competitiveness,” Shih said.
In absence of their own core technologies, Shih said, Taiwanese DRAM makers pay more than NT$20 billion (US$620 million) in royalties each year to overseas firms that have those technologies.
The revitalization plan would solve the root of the problem by allowing local firms to master the core technologies, he said.
Lawmakers passed a resolution on Nov. 11 scrapping the government’s plan to revitalize the DRAM industry, which was hit hard by the financial crisis, saying that the opportune moment to inject capital had already passed and the government should not waste taxpayers’ money.
Of the three companies that applied for the capital funding — Taiwan Memory Co (TMC, 台灣創新記憶體公司), Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體) and Kaohsiung-based Taiwan Creative Lab (台灣創造力實驗室) — TMC received approval, with an initial capital injection of NT$4.9 billion.
MOEA data indicate that TMC plans to acquire a 9.5 percent stake in its Japanese partner, Elpida Memory Inc, to jointly develop next-generation technologies.
TMC plans to raise NT$18 billion, with 45 percent, or NT$8.1 billion, coming from the government. Its first-phase fundraising goal is NT$11 billion, with NT$4.9 billion in government funding, while the second-phase will require NT$7 billion, with the government supplying NT$3.2 billion.
Shih said the government may or may not fund the second phase, depending on the performance after the first-phase investment.
Despite a wave of objections from lawmakers, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) voiced support for the plan.
He said the government must persuade lawmakers by proving that the funding would help TMC retain core technologies and the investment would not be a waste.
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