GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), a leading silicon wafer supplier, is repatriating US$350 million for local investments, taking advantage of a preferential tax status created by a newly passed law that encourages local firms to repatriate retained earnings.
GlobalWafers said in a statement on Tuesday that the plan for fund repatriation has been approved by its board of directors and is scheduled to be completed in the first half of next year.
GlobalWafers is just one of the major local enterprises with a worldwide production network that have responded to government incentives to invest back home to boost local industrial development and the economy.
The Act on the Use of and Taxation on Inward Remittances of Overseas Funds (境外資金匯回管理運用及課稅條例), which took effect on Aug. 15, allows retained earnings to return and be taxed at a lower preferential rate rather than at the standard corporate income rate.
Late last month, iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world’s largest contract electronics maker, announced that it has remitted NT$7 billion (US$230.2 million) to Taiwan from overseas under the law to increase its stake in subsidiary Asia Pacific Telecom Co (亞太電信).
GlobalWafers said that it would use the funds to upgrade high-end processes, while speeding up the pace at which it develops silicon wafers for 5G devices, power electronics and electric vehicles.
GlobalWafers aims to expand an existing research-and-development center and to assign more funds to renewable energy development, the company said, adding that it expects to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from wafer manufacturing.
In October, the Industrial Development Bureau certified GlobalWafers as a “green factory,” the company said.
The company expects investment in renewable energy to help it fulfill its responsibilities as a corporation.
GlobalWafers is the third-largest silicon wafer manufacturer in the world since acquiring Singapore-based Sun Edison Semiconductor Ltd for US$683 million in late 2016.
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