The Wisconsin Senate was yesterday poised to approve nearly US$3 billion in cash payments for Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), an unprecedented incentive package for the electronics company to locate a flat-screen factory in the state.
The proposed subsidy would be the largest ever from a US state to a foreign company and 10 times bigger than anything Wisconsin has extended to a private business.
It would take at least 25 years for Wisconsin to see a return on its investment, the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimated.
Foxconn would receive US$2.85 billion in cash payments over 15 years if it invests US$10 billion in the state and employs 13,000 people. It could also qualify for US$150 million in sales tax exemptions for construction equipment.
The Wisconsin State Assembly, which like the Senate is firmly controlled by US Republicans, is to take a final vote tomorrow.
The bill then goes to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who led negotiations on the deal and has a deadline to sign a bill by the end of the month.
Critics, including US Democrats who do not have the votes to stop it, have said state taxpayers are giving up too much.
They have also questioned whether the state economic development agency, which has had trouble tracking much smaller projects, will be able to properly verify that the required investments are made and jobs created.
Walker and other supporters have said Foxconn is giving the state a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get a foothold in the world electronics market.
Foxconn is the world’s largest contract maker of electronics, best known for making Apple Inc’s iPhones, but with a long list of clients including Sony Corp, Dell Inc and BlackBerry Ltd.
The Wisconsin plant would be the first outside of Asia to construct LCD panels for TVs, computers and other uses. Foxconn wants to open the factory by 2020 and initially employ 3,000 people.
Environmental groups and others concerned with the waiving of certain state regulations to speed construction of the plant have been threatening to file lawsuits.
Foxconn would be allowed to build in wetland and waterways and construct its 1.86km2 campus without first doing an environmental impact statement.
Under the bill up for a vote yesterday, Foxconn would enjoy a direct path to the Wisconsin Supreme Court on any legal challenges, skipping the state appeals court.
The high court is controlled 5-2 by conservatives.
Foxconn is eyeing locations in Racine and Kenosha counties in southeastern Wisconsin, but has not yet announced where exactly it will build.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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