Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker on Monday signed a US$3 billion incentive package for Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), known in Taiwan as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), to build a flat-screen plant in southeastern Wisconsin, a deal he says would provide thousands of jobs for generations.
The US Republican governor signed the bill during a ceremony at Gateway Technical College in Racine County, where the plant will likely be built.
“This is about far into the future,” Walker said. “This is about ensuring our children and our children’s children will have those kind of, really, generational-type opportunities. This is one of those things that’s transformational.”
Walker told reporters after the signing that next steps call for the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp to finalize a contract with Foxconn to execute the provisions in the bill.
The economic corp board is scheduled to meet on Thursday next week to approve the agreement. Foxconn executives will then likely reveal the precise location for the plant before the contract is signed early next month.
Walker told WTMJ-AM radio on Monday morning that he expects groundbreaking this spring.
Foxconn hopes to open the plant in 2020.
No one from Foxconn attended the event.
Walker said the company’s leaders planned to visit the state for the contract signing.
The bill provides about US$3 billion in cash to Foxconn if it invests US$10 billion in a new flat-screen factory in southeastern Wisconsin and employs 13,000 people. The measure provides US$150 million in sales tax exemptions on construction equipment and allows the company to build in wetlands and waterways.
The package gives the conservative-leaning state Supreme Court the option to take appeals of circuit court decisions related to the Foxconn project directly rather than having them heard by an intermediate appellate court. Any lower court decision would be automatically stayed during the appeal.
The bill also calls for borrowing US$252 million to rebuild Interstate 94 near the plant site, but makes spending the money contingent on a federal match and approval from the legislature’s budget committee.
Walker used his veto power to eliminate the budget committee from the process, saying creating ambiguity about the availability of the state dollars could push the federal government to send potential matching dollars to other states.
Walker and supporters are heralding the deal as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make the state a hub for the high-tech electronics industry.
Foxconn is the world’s largest contract manufacturer of electronics and is best-known for making iPhones.
Opponents have decried the deal as a giveaway to Foxconn, saying it has not provided enough guarantees to protect taxpayers in case workers are laid off or Foxconn leaves the state.
An analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau found it would take at least 25 years for Wisconsin taxpayers to break even on the incentives.
Walker told reporters after the signing he believes Foxconn will uphold its pledge to create thousands of jobs.
“I’m more than confident this will happen,” Walker said moments before he signed the bill.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors