The Japanese government would begin preparing a bill to expand financial aid aimed at increasing local production of semiconductors by domestic and foreign companies, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida plans to submit the bill to an ordinary Diet session this year, the daily reported, citing people it did not identify who belong to the administration and ruling party.
Global chip shortages in industries ranging from automotive to entertainment have slowed growth in the world economy as it attempts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) said earlier this month that it would build a chip factory in Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture, with a subsidiary of Sony Group Corp becoming a minority shareholder in the venture.
The bill would also strengthen the government’s ability to check the country of origin of any computer equipment it purchases, with a goal to block China-made computer devices before they were installed in a national security capacity, the Yomiuri reported.
Separately, Samsung Electronics Co vice chairman Jay Y. Lee yesterday left for Canada and the US in his first overseas business trip since his parole in August, Yonhap News agency reported.
Samsung’s de facto chief told reporters at an airport that he would meet with “various partners” in the US, Yonhap said.
While it is unclear what Lee would do in his first business travel to the country in five years, he could visit Samsung’s chip plant site in Austin, Texas, amid the shortage of semiconductors and might finalize the selection of the site for the firm’s new US chip plant, according to the report.
Lee is also to visit Boston, where Moderna Inc’s headquarters are located. Samsung Biologics Co makes the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
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