Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) plans to invest NT$25 billion (US$821.13 million) in Kaohsiung over the next three years, the company and the Kaohsiung City Government said yesterday.
The two sides signed a letter of intent at a ceremony at the Kaohsiung Software Park, attended by Vice Premier Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) and Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉), the city said in a statement.
Hon Hai, the world’s largest contract electronics maker and Apple Inc’s most important iPhone assembler, plans to establish the company’s Southern Taiwan service center, along with an international research and training center, in the city’s Asia New Bay Area (亞洲新灣區), the statement said.
Photo: Ge You-hao, Taipei Times
Hon Hai is also set to work with Kaohsiung to develop a comprehensive plan for smart cities, to be based on the company’s smart city platform, CityGPT, the company said in a separate statement.
“Kaohsiung has a port, an airport and vast outlying terrain. The planned infrastructure will make the smart city initiative complete,” Liu said in the statement.
The three-year, NT$25 billion investment is expected to create 2,000 jobs, the company said.
Hon Hai operates manufacturing facilities in the city’s Ciaotou Science and Technology Park (橋頭科學園區) and Ho Fa Industrial Park (和發產業園區) that make electric buses and batteries for electric vehicles (EVs).
An electric bus plant in the Ciaotou park is expected to begin mass production in 2025, initially producing 500 units per year, Hon Hai said.
The company plans to raise the figure to 1,000 by 2028, mainly for the domestic market, it added.
Hon Hai’s plant for lithium iron phosphate EV batteries in Ho Fa Industrial Park is expected to mass produce 1.2 gigawatt-hours of energy in the third quarter of next year, it said.
The company is expanding its EV business as it seeks to diversify its revenue base and to rely less on consumer electronics, which have contributed to a fall in gross margin.
Hon Hai and Kaohsiung, the first city to use Hon Hai’s Model T electric buses, have been discussing smart city initiatives for more than a year.
Hon Hai’s Asia New Bay Area investment plan follows several other firms such as Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), IBM Corp, Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) and AUO Corp (友達) in efforts to increase investment in Kaohsiung, as the government aims to accelerate the city’s development of 5G, artificial intelligence of things, information technology and digital industries.
Investments in the Asia New Bay Area reached about NT$15.4 billion at the end of last year, and generated an output value of NT$32.7 billion, the Kaohsiung government said.
Hon Hai’s new investment pledges came after founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) announced on Wednesday last week that he is seeking to be the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential nominee for next year’s national election.
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
ENHANCE DETERRENCE: Taiwan has to display ‘fierce resolve’ to defend itself for China to understand that the costs of war outweigh potential gains, Koo said Taiwan’s armed forces must reach a high level of combat readiness by 2027 to effectively deter a potential Chinese invasion, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said in an interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) published yesterday. His comments came three days after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the US Senate that deterring a Chinese attack on Taiwan requires making a conflict “cost more than what it’s worth.” Rubio made the remarks in response to a question about US policy on Taiwan’s defense from Republican Senator John Cornyn, who said that Chinese
The zero emissions ship Porrima P111 was launched yesterday in Kaohsiung, showcasing the nation’s advancement in green technology, city Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said. The nation last year acquired the Swiss-owned vessel, formerly known as Turanor PlanetSolar, in a bid to boost Taiwan’s technology sector, as well as ecotourism in Palau, Chen said at the ship’s launch ceremony at Singda Harbor. Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr and Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) also attended the event. The original vessel was the first solar-powered ship to circumnavigate the globe in a voyage from 2010 to 2012. Taiwan-based Porrima Inc (保利馬) installed upgrades with
RSS