Taiwan should let its manufacturers of flat panels set up plants in China before semiconductor manufacturers to meet surging demand in that country, the government’s industrial policy-making department said.
“The speed of our opening will be step by step, we won’t open all our investment to China at the same time,” Vivian Lien (連玉蘋), director of the Industrial Development Bureau’s (IDB) industrial policy division said in an interview in Taipei last week.
The bureau, under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, has sent its recommendations to Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) before seeking approval from the Cabinet and lawmakers.
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) is set to decide this month which industries will be allowed to invest in China. Eased rules on flat-panel makers would let AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) build plants in China, joining South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co and LG Display Co, the world’s top suppliers.
Taiwan bars LCD display makers that produce panels larger than 4 inches from investing in China.
“LCD companies have a greater urgency than chip foundries to go to China, because flat panels are a component of consumer-electronics products that need to be assembled and sold within target markets,” Tsai Chung-ping (蔡忠平), head of the IDB’s information technology industries division, said.
Samsung said on Oct. 16 it would spend US$2.3 billion to build a panel factory in China. Two days earlier, LG Display said it would form a US$4 billion venture for an LCD plant in Guangzhou.
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