The National Development Council (NDC) has yet to build an Asian Silicon Valley in Taiwan, but rejected criticism that it has been inactive.
The council, which is charged with coordinating government resources for the initiative and other industrial reform measures, is working on promoting the project and recruiting bidders to set up an execution center, it said in a statement yesterday.
APPROVED
The center is the first step to realizing the initiative, which is one of the five innovative industries President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) vows to build during her time in office.
The council is creating project offices in Taoyuan and Taipei, the statement said.
The government has approved plans to earmark NT$11.3 billion (US$359.09 million) next year as part of a four-year plan to turn the nation into a regional technology hub.
The execution center is to help the council coordinate and integrate proposals and resources and make sure things proceed as planned, the council said.
The statement came after local media dismissed the center as a four-month task force that might not achieve anything.
The center is intended to link up with Silicon Valley in the US and other global technology hubs to help make Taiwan an entrepreneurial base for young people to realize their innovations and ideas, council deputy director Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said last month.
The council plans to invite experts to establish and staff the center through an open tender, and published related qualifications and requirements last month in the hope it would start operations later this month.
The team would have to demonstrate management, communication and technology prowess, and possess expertise in the Internet of Things and other innovative fields, Kung said.
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
A proposed 100 percent tariff on chip imports announced by US President Donald Trump could shift more of Taiwan’s semiconductor production overseas, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) researcher said yesterday. Trump’s tariff policy will accelerate the global semiconductor industry’s pace to establish roots in the US, leading to higher supply chain costs and ultimately raising prices of consumer electronics and creating uncertainty for future market demand, Arisa Liu (劉佩真) at the institute’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database said in a telephone interview. Trump’s move signals his intention to "restore the glory of the US semiconductor industry," Liu noted, saying that
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
STILL UNCLEAR: Several aspects of the policy still need to be clarified, such as whether the exemptions would expand to related products, PwC Taiwan warned The TAIEX surged yesterday, led by gains in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), after US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping 100 percent tariff on imported semiconductors — while exempting companies operating or building plants in the US, which includes TSMC. The benchmark index jumped 556.41 points, or 2.37 percent, to close at 24,003.77, breaching the 24,000-point level and hitting its highest close this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed. TSMC rose NT$55, or 4.89 percent, to close at a record NT$1,180, as the company is already investing heavily in a multibillion-dollar plant in Arizona that led investors to assume
RSS