President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday that Taiwan should be more open and relax its rules on investment in China by Taiwanese chipmakers, noting that the US allowed Intel Corp to build a 12-inch factory in Dalian last year.
“I believe that it is a reasonable and necessary policy for our government to open up further,” Ma said as he met Mike Splinter, president and chief executive officer of Applied Materials, a supplier of products and services to the semiconductor industry, at the Presidential Office.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and other chipmakers have been seeking to move more production to China to be closer to customers, but at present they are only allowed to set up 8-inch factories.
Taiwan is “lagging behind” the US, as the government only allows chipmakers to produce 8-inch or smaller wafers in China and to use 0.18-micron or larger processes, Ma said. The government should ease controls as long as the move does not violate the spirit of the Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Control for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies, he said.
The 1996 pact aims to ensure that transfers of these items do not contribute to the development or enhancement of military capabilities that undermine regional and international security and stability.
If the US government, which was a key player in the pact, allowed Intel to set up a 12-inch factory, Taiwan should also relax its investment regulations on the semiconductor industry, Ma said.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) held a press conference later yesterday to say it would incorporate Ma’s ideas next month as it relaxs restrictions on technology investment in China, after it completes its plan to remove the 40 percent cap on China-bound investment this month.
“As long as we are able to control our key technologies, we can basically follow international standards,” Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) said.
The Wassenaar Arrangement requires the technology during the production stage at Intel’s wafer plant in Dalian to be at least two generations behind the latest technology after it goes into mass production. For example, the US allowed Intel to set up a 12-inch wafer fab using 90 nanometer process technology in Dalian, as the latest technology in the US is 45 nanometer.
After the Dalian wafer fab goes into the mass production stage, both 90 namometer and 65 nanometer process technologies will be allowed to be used in Dalian, as the latest technology will have advanced to 32 nanometer in the US by then.
But even if the restrictions are lifted, Yiin said the possibility that Taiwanese semiconductor firms will invest in 12-inch wafer fabs in China is rather low, as China’s semiconductor industry is not as competitive or as complete as Taiwan’s.
At a separate setting last night, Lin Chen-wei (林成蔚), director of the Democratic Progressive Party’s Department of International Affairs, urged Ma to do his homework and be more cautious when commenting on economic policies.
“Talking through his hat without making a thorough assessment will only worsen the economic downturn and cause more disasters in the stock market,” Lin said.
He said Ma was making an naive decision “based on the simple logic that the US allows chipmakers to invest in China, so Taiwan can too.”
Such a policy would put Taiwan in a very dangerous situation, Lin said.
Additional reporting by CNA and Staff writer
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
FORCED LABOR: A US court listed three Taiwanese and nine firms based in Taiwan in its indictment, with eight of the companies registered at the same address Nine companies registered in Taiwan, as well as three Taiwanese, on Tuesday were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) as a result of a US federal court indictment. The indictment unsealed at the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, said that Chen Zhi (陳志), a dual Cambodian-British national, is being indicted for fraud conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding Group’s forced-labor scam camps in Cambodia. At its peak, the company allegedly made US$30 million per day, court documents showed. The US government has seized Chen’s noncustodial wallet, which contains
SUPPLY CHAIN: Taiwan’s advantages in the drone industry include rapid production capacity that is independent of Chinese-made parts, the economic ministry said The Executive Yuan yesterday approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion (US$1.44 billion) into domestic production of uncrewed aerial vehicles over the next six years, bringing Taiwan’s output value to more than NT$40 billion by 2030 and making the nation Asia’s democratic hub for the drone supply chain. The proposed budget has NT$33.8 billion in new allocations and NT$10.43 billion in existing funds, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Under the new development program, the public sector would purchase nearly 100,000 drones, of which 50,898 would be for civil and government use, while 48,750 would be for national defense, it said. The Ministry of
RSS